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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A VOICE FROM THE PRISON; 



OR, 



Cro% for % Uttltitak, 



PEARLS FOR THE TRUTHFUL. 



BT 

if 

JAMES A. CLAY, 

EDITOR OF "DAVID SLING " AND "EASTERN LIGHT." 



WRITTEN DURING HIS CONFINEMENT IN AUGUSTA (ME.) JAIL. 



« Do men light a candle, and put it under a buahel ? " 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY BELA MARSH. 

GARDINER, Me. : JAMES A. CLAY. 

1856. 






THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



NOT " Entered according to Act of Congress.' 



There is no " Entered according to Act of Congress " with this book. It 
is a matter in which Congress has no business to meddle (except to read, and 
learn to be wise), and in which its protection to copy-right is not sought. 
Though I should be pleased to reap pecuniary profit from its sale sufficient 
to redeem a domain from the grasp of avarice, which humanity might enjoy, 
and from which to spread the Gospel of truth and right, unmingled with the 
dogmas of church, state, and mammon ; still, I would rather a copy would 
go into the hands of every man, woman and child, who is capable of appre- 
ciating it, returning to me such regard as these principles will inspire, than 
that few copies only should be circulated, returning to me the moneyed wealth 
and power of all nations combined. 

If a moneyed slave can add to his wealth and power by what the trade 
would regard as infringing on my copy-right, he must do so if he will 5 and 
if a loving free one can cooperate with me in spreading the truth, I hail 
him or her with welcome to a right with me in this book, or whatever else I 
possess. 



PREFACE. 



Reader, this little work, with a slight excep- 
tion, is what it purports to be, "A Voice from 
the Prison." It was written during the fulfil- 
ment of a sentence of six months' confinement 
within the enclosure made of a pile of stone and 
mortar, which forbade the reception of the pure 
air of heaven and the unadulterated sunlight, and 
restrained from the enjoyment of the beauties of 
nature, and the blessings of liberty, under the 
pretence of reformation, or making one more 
godlike. 

It was not in the so-called dark ages of the 
world ; nor was it in a foreign land, under the 
rule of some benighted savage, or religious despot ; 
nor was it at a time when the earth drank the 
blood of the slain at the hand of a foreign invader ; 
but it was past the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury of the Christian era, which proclaimed "free- 
dom to the captive ; ;; and fourscore years after 



IV PREFACE. 

the same cry rang in loud huzzas from zone to 
zone, and it was proclaimed throughout the land 
that man's inalienable rights were life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness. It was long, long after 
the people declared that no man's religion should 
be questioned, but that his right to worship God 
after the dictates of his own conscience should be 
guaranteed him. It was long after the wild forest 
fell before the white man's axe, and the red man 
silently acquiesced in his rule. It was long after 
the land was dotted thick with spires, and belfry- 
bells rang in almost deafening peals to congregate 
the worshippers of God, or the advocates of the 
Christian religion, — which religion is universal 
love. It was after all this ; it was in our own 
time, — in the years one thousand eight hundred 
fifty four and five ; in America's New England, 
the emporium of human freedom ; in Augusta, 
Maine's capital, — that the prison doors are closed 
on one for living truthfully obedient to his own 
consciousness of right, and the Christian religion, 
sacredly regarding the right of every other living 
being. All this is true to the letter ; and this 
little book, entitled " A Voice from the Prison," 
is a plea against such injustice, and like misrule, 
and in favor of universal life, love, liberty, har- 
mony, and happiness. That the book contains 
" truths for the multitude, and pearls for the truth- 
ful," I might as well have left for the reader to 



PREFACE. V 

judge, after having perused its pages ; but such 
is as apparent to me, as that it is " a voice from 
the prison ; " though, at the utterance of many of 
the thoughts, comes the cry, " Mad-man ! v " Mad- 
man I ,; though to me such are the most truthful 
and beautiful. 

The people judge, as they must, from the judg- 
ments resting on themselves, which I must endure, 
unjust though they are, until the coming intelli- 
gence reverse their unjust judgments, and give 
these truths a place, where they should be, in 
every one's understanding. 

My literary readers, if I have such, must not 
anticipate a feast of eloquence ; and those of few 
letters need anticipate only a plain dish of the 
simplest truths, served up in the commonest style. 
There are no condiments to gratify the depraved 
appetite ; nor are there sweets to tempt the un- 
depraved. I would have the contents of the book 
devoured only on its own substantial merits ; not 
as I judge, but as the reader may judge. 

At the age of fourteen, I finished quite a " com- 
mon school " education, and made my debut into 
a country groggery, with a license from the 
" authorities " to give the intoxicating cup to 
whom I pleased ; and now, at the age of forty, I 
have, I hope, finished my prison discipline with 
those whom like authorities imprison for a like 
traffic, which, in my former days, was made re- 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

spectable, and even honorable, by their participa- 
tion and approval. 

Of course, my education, thus limited, was not 
for authorship, though I was perplexed much on 
moods and tenses, verbs and adverbs, nouns and 
pronouns. My fund of book education mainly 
consisted in how many gills in a pint, pints in a 
quart, quarts in a gallon, gallons in a barrel, 
tierce, or pipe ; how many ounces in a pound, 
quarter, cwt., or ton; how many farthings in a 
penny, pence in a shilling, mills in a cent, cents 
in a dime, dimes in a dollar, &c. My business 
was not calculated to add to my then limited 
fund of book education, though it learned me much 
of depraved human nature. 

For many years, after I abandoned the groggery, 
I li^ed in the fumes of tobacco, and gorged my 
stomach with the flesh of slaughtered animals ; 
and ever, until recently, have been engaged in 
the world's strife for gold ; therefore am destitute 
of a book education, so desirable for book author- 
ship. My prison discipline, though it has given 
me a knowledge I could not elsewhere have ob- 
tained, and which I would be unwilling to part with 
though the cost be doubled, yet has not added to 
me words which I need to express my thoughts. 

Though the book has reference to my particular 
case, it is by no means a personal affair, but is of 
general and universal interest. On the whole, it 



PREFACE. VU 

is a radical revolutionist, religious, political, 
social, and commercial. It strikes at the root of 
the most popular and idolized institutions of the 
age, yet with so truthful and convincing argu- 
ments that the intelligent conservative is forced 
to concede that there is "too much truth in it." 
Those who are so blindly conservative as to be 
in love and harmony with the popular education, 
prejudice, custom, law, and fashion of the past 
and present, which is to be the standard by which 
to judge of what it treats, in all probability will 
find much to condemn. But those who are freed 
from prejudice, and dare rely on what is appro- 
bated by the heart and understanding, will find 
but little or nothing to reject, but much to wel- 
come, honor, and respect. If the childlike sim- 
plicity, such as Jesus taught is the kingdom of 
heaven, has an indwelling in the reader's heart, 
then we are one with the Author of all good, and 
our lives and aspirations can mingle together to 
our present as well as our future happiness. Such 
an one I hail as brother, as sister, and welcome 
them to a share, little though it be, of all I possess 
of this world's goods, and to truths yet untold 
that shall be of infinite worth to us. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

An Accusation and my Defence, 13 



CHAPTER II. 

Petition to Governor and Council of Maine for my Release, . 28 
Petition to Judge Rice of the Supreme Judicial Court, ... 35 
Petition to Governor and Council of 1855, 40 

CHAPTER III. 

On Free Love, or Freedom and Love, or Love in Freedom, or 
the Christian Religion, 41 

CHAPTER IV. 
On Government, . . 83 

CHAPTER V. 
Oft Judgments or Punishments; 132 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGE 

Petition to Senate and House of Representatives in Legisla- 
ture of Maine for Repeal of certain Laws. Worthy of the 
consideration of all Legislatures, 147 

CHAPTER VII. 

On the Maine Law, 163 

Of the Constitution of the United States and State of 

Maine, 180 

Of Crime, 183 

The Three Professions, 188 

My Prison Reflections, 191 

What shall I tell them ? 193 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Why I reject the Bible, as a whole, 195 

Why I respect Christianity, and reject the popular Church, . 199 
My Brother G., 217 

CHAPTER IX. 

Association a Failure, '. 217 

Patching, 227 

If, 229 

Is it Right? 230 

Toleration, 232 

" Come out, and be Separate," 233 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

" Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven," 237 

" Be ye therefore Perfect," 239 

" To them that are pure are all things pure," 241 

" I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice," 242 

" Now is the Judgment," 243 

The Light of Life, 244 

CHAPTER X. 

" Be not overcome of Evil," 249 

" As ye Forgive so are ye Forgiven," 253 

Napoleon, 256 

Education, 259 

Objections Answered, 266 

CHAPTER XI. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 

Letter to Lily, 283 

Another Letter to Lily, 286 

Third Letter to Lily, 290 

Letter to Brother 0., 295 

Letter from Brother 0., 298 

Letter to Brother 0., 299 

Another Letter to Brother 0., 305 

CHAPTER XII. 

CORRESPONDENCE CONTINUED. 

Letter to Frank, 309 

Letter from Frank, 314 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Letter to Frank, 315 

Letter to M., 319 

Letter from M. B. M., 325 

Reply to the Same, 328 

Letter to Vesta, 329 

Letter to Emma, 333 

Letter to James, 335 

Letter to Eva, 338 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Thought, Speech, Action, 342 

My Freedom, 344 

Henry Ward Beeeher's Sayings and Comments, 347 

What will the People say? 348 

Conclusion, to Reformers, 352 



CHAPTER I. 

AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 

[From the Eastern Light.] 

Gardiner, Sept. 25, 1854. 
Mr. James A. Glay, 

Dear Sir : — I delivered the petition as requested 
by you to do. It is not, however, in circulation, and 
it would be useless to try to get subscribers to it. I 
do not believe that ten persons, of influence, in Gardi- 
ner would sign it. There is one in circulation alleging 
insanity as a cause of your improper conduct, and 

Mr. is doing his best to get subscribers to it, 

but with slow success. The most that sign it declare 
they should be ashamed to sign it were it not for the 
plea of insanity. You are not aware of the feeling in 
this community concerning you ; — there is a union of 
feeling with regard to it. It is openly said by nearly 
all, that, on account of your neglect of .your family, 
and the lascivious conduct with Miss C. and others, you 
deserve severe punishment. 

It is currently reported that your friends have of- 
fered to pay your fine, and also said that you are 
wilful, and will not return to your family. These 
things, whether true or not, serve to harden people 
against you. In order to show you correctly the feel- 
ing towards you, I have but to inform you that the 
petition for the release or pardon of Mr. H. was 
signed readily and numerously, while it is not only 
hard, but an up-hill business, getting subscribers to 
2 



14 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 

yours. Many signed Mr. H.'s, declaring tha.t they dicl 
so, not because they thought him insane or guiltless? 
but because he was sentenced harder than you ; and 
that they considered you ten times more guilty than 
he. Now mark the difference. You were born here, 
and have had the benefit of rich parents, influential 
friends ; have had a fair education ; have been deeply 
engaged in business in the place, and for a long time 
held a good position in society ; was considered a good, 
worthy citizen. While, on the other hand, Mr. H. is 
of a poor family origin, &c, and has no influence what- 
ever. By reflecting for a few moments, you will 
readily see the feeling in this community with regard 
to you. Let me tell you, plainly, that even your near- 
est friends have doubts as to your being able to effect 
a release by a pardon ; and let me further say to you, 
that, should you be so lucky as to effect it, unless you 
should return to your family, an effort will be made to 
find a still more gloomy place for you. In fact, it is 
openly said by influential men, that if you get released, 
and still continue to neglect your family, they will do 
their best to get you into the Insane Hospital. James, 
I have written this in a hurry, and in a rough manner, 
not because I wished to say aught that would injure 
your feelings. May God forbid that I should cause 
the least pang to any human being situated like you. 
But I considered it my duty to inform you of the feel- 
ing, as near as I could learn it, and as your nearest 
friends have expressed themselves. 

I trust you will not come to the conclusion, after 
reading this letter, that this is a hardened community. 
There are many, very many, who would be glad to see 
you again in our streets, doing business, and again living 
with your family ; and who would not only receive you 
socially, but would, as far as they could, assist you other- 
wise. I remain, very respectfully, yours, Q. 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 15 

Sept. 27. — Dear James: — I did not mail this 
letter as soon as I might, for the reason I wanted to 
become as well informed as possible with regard to the 
feeling concerning *you. I now mail it, feeling the 
above to be a correct statement. Mr. H. has labored 
hard to procure subscribers to the petition, and has, I 
understand, got about eighty names. I hope you will 
find favor from the Executive. 

In haste, truly yours, Q. 



I give place to the foregoing letter, for the purpose 
of meeting the charge against me of forsaking my 
family, and making such other remarks as occur to me. 
The most of the charges against me, or my position, 
I have answered elsewhere, in this and other papers. 
If what I have said, and what I now say, answers for 
my " friends," it is well ; if not, they must wait until 
I can give them more light, or until they can appre- 
ciate the present, or until I can appreciate their light. 
What better can we all do ? But while they claim to 
be my friends, let them not practically falsify the doc- 
trines of Christianity, or disobey the laws of God or 
nature, which are the same ; for while they are enemies 
to themselves there can be no true friendship existing 
towards me or any one else. As said Jesus, so say I : 
46 He that doeth the will of my Father, the same is my 
mother, my sister, my brother," or my nearest friend, 
and for whom I will make the greatest sacrifice, if any 
need be made, and who will make the greatest sacrifice 
for me. 

I claim no friendship for birth, " rich parentage," 
my former business relation, or talents, or for anything 
of the kind ; but for what I am now worth to the world 
— for the truth I have, and speak, and live, — - for that 
alone, be a friend to me, and that not for my own sake 



16 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE,, 

merely, but for your own. Let your own enlightened 
selfishness measure your friendship for me. If you 
can make the most out of me by incarcerating me in 
your mad-house, that do. I will go there cheerfully 
and without a murmur. But, first, consider if we are 
not now in an " insane hospital," whose walls are with- 
out limits, in this world, and to whose patients you are 
administering quack nostrums, trying to turn physician 
for me, a true one, whom you would have swallow your 
drugs, that would render me, like you, insane. 

I merely make these suggestions for your considera- 
tion, not even wishing to impose the simple truism on 
yourselves ; for I have learned a better philosophy than 
to force a truth even on those who receive it reluct- 
antly. Such as I have, if you want that, I give 
freely ; if not, it is no business of mine but to free 
myself, if possible, from the effect of your sins, and 
let you go your own way rejoicing or mourning, as 
the case may be, to your own destruction. Members* 
of one body are we, and I must suffer for your sins as 
I am now doing, in prison, until I am raised above 
you, and joined to a higher sphere with Christ. Hence 
the necessity of my labors for your welfare, that I may 
be saved from the effects of your sins. 

It is quite certain that there is insanity somewhere, 
but I am not sure that, taking a vote of the whole com- 
munity, they would not throw the madness on those who 
persecute, rather than on me. But be that as it may, 
the fact would not be altered in the least. There has 
many a man stood all alone, and avowed a philosoph- 
ical, astronomical, mechanical, religious, moral, or 
social truth, and some have paid as dear as their lives 
for the presumption. Ignorant persons have thought 
they must kill the man to kill the falsehood, as they 
supposed it. Yet the truth lives to bless, time without 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. if 

end. Men have not learned that all falsehood must 
die of itself, and that all truth will also live of itself, 
and that persecution brings early to light truths that 
would much longer have remained unborn. Good comes 
out of evil, yet no good comes to those who commit 
evil, for committing the act. 

On my own account it matters but little what " the 
feeling of the community " is towards me, otherwise 
than my connection with them, that obliges me to suffer 
for their sins. It is enough for me to know and obey 
the truth, so far as possible ; but I have a feeling that 
I have not so many of what the world calls enemies, 
and so few of what it calls friends, as this brother of 
mine would have me think. Really, I don't believe 
there is one man, " influential " or otherwise, in my 
native town, that, were it left solely to himself, would 
not forgive me. However, if they are all unforgiv- 
ing, the worse is their own; they cannot do me so 
much harm by keeping me in prison six months, as 
they do themselves by cherishing such a feeling. The 
petition, as it comes to me with the names, though 
under the plea of insanity, tells me that humanity 
still lives in the bosoms of many, though under many 
perversions. I do not apprehend that one in ten of 
those that signed that petition, heard it read, or knew 
that it embodied a plea of insanity. If they did, and 
as my brother says, were ashamed to ask a pardon for 
me on any other plea, it is only being ashamed of 
Christianity, even if I am the most vile sinner. Chris- 
tianity, or obedience to the laws of God — love or 
humanity — is nothing to be ashamed of, even if it is 
frowned on by the towering steeples that rear them- 
selves in countless numbers throughout the so-called 
civilized world. God and truth are not to be mocked 
with pretences ; not even with sincere falses. He 
2* 



18 AN ACCUSATION, ANB MY DEEEffCE, 

did not make the world for shams, but for realities J 
not for misery, but for happiness ; and they that would 
enjoy it must be real, must be happy. 

Do not think I wish to be harsh when I speak of 
Christianity being frowned on by the towering steeples. 
It is not my wish to offend, but I do wish to learn the 
people there is something more beautiful to live for 
than that which we see everywhere called Christianity. 
This is the fifth Sabbath I have been within these 
prison walls, together with from fifteen to twenty-five 
other prisoners, and, as yet, have not had the first call 
from one who came as a Christian, from the church es ? 
to administer consolation, though I have sat at my 
window on the church-going days, and counted from 
three to fiYe hundred pass to and from church, once 7 
twice, or thrice daily, and have written especially re- 
questing ministers to call on me, hoping we might 
mutually benefit each other by an interview, but, as I 
have said before, have had no call ; yet I am in a little 
city that counts nearly half a score of churches, and 
as many societies taking the name of Christ. 

Do the people think there is a future judgment, as 
they would teach me by the parable of the sheep and 
goats, and they are the chosen to sit on the right hand 
with Jesus ? Let them read the parable again, and 
undeceive themselves in regard to their election. Now 
is the judgment, and every inhumanity to a brother 
man, the " least " of them, as said Jesus, is a judg- 
ment against us, from which there is no escape by 
prayers, oblations or' atonements. On every hand, 
high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, do I see 
the judgment, not that is to come, but that now is. I 
do not mention this by way of complaint that I am 
neglected, for I have, from humanity, not from the 
churches, very many kind attentions. A poor laborer, 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 19 

who has labored for me months, in days past, came to 
me, kindly offering his money and services, and insist- 
ing upon my making known to him my wants, that he 
might supply them. 

My keepers make my lot very tolerable indeed, by 
their care for my necessities, 

The very essence of Christianity was forgiveness, 
and without which, and the looking after the cause of 
crime, we may multiply criminals indefinitely, only 
looking for a diminution in our convicts in the decrease 
of population. Public statistics give an increase of 
crime in a much greater ratio than the increase of 
population ; and how else can we expect when states 
commit crimes to diminish crime ? The increase of 
crime by such a course, is just as demonstrable as 
that two and two make four. Evil cannot be over- 
come, save and except by good. I say, " when states 
commit crime to diminish crime." States often attach 
a severe penalty to an offence against itself, when there 
is no offence against any — no crime whatever com- 
mitted. State laws may be serviceable when they pro- 
tect to individuals their natural rights, but are not so 
when a right is only secured to one by depriving 
another of a like ; and they are pernicious, indeed, 
when they usurp authority, as they almost invariably 
do, to deprive the mass of certain natural rights, under 
the pretence of giving an equivalent in some other 
form. What is a state, that it should absorb a natural 
right of its subjects? No man has a right even to 
barter away a natural right. There is nothing that 
can be an equivalent. What can compensate man for 
the right to the soil, which he is deprived of, while it 
is sold in large tracts to speculators, not to use, but to 
lay idle, while hands lay idle and become profligate 
for its want ? The plea of protection to the people, by 



20 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE* 

states, is a mere farce. The states protect themselves 
as states, while the people yield their life, their liberty, 
their happiness, for an idle fame. It is true this 
nation has thrown off the yoke of another nation that 
had become extremely burdensome ; but why should it 
impose its own yoke on those who have outgrown the 
necessity of the burden? And what this nation has 
done is only to protect against another aggressor on 
human rights, of less enormity in some respects, and 
greater in others ; — less in declaring life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness, the right of all ; but greater 
in withholding from millions of the African race and 
their descendants that right. Throughout there is 
much less disparity than one might suppose at first 
thought. 

As I have said before, the true philosophy is for- 
giveness to those who transgress against us, leaving 
the transgressor to perish by his own selfishness, when 
he could not be reclaimed by our good. The woman, 
who was truthfully charged with adultery, being caught 
in the very act, Jesus forgave, and said, " Go, and sin 
no more." This, however, was after calling on those 
without sin, to execute the law ; he being quite sure 
that those without sin were scarce, and those free from 
it he knew would, like himself, forgive. 

My persecutors know, every one for themselves, who 
could or could not execute the law under the injunction 
of Jesus, "let them without sin cast the first stone. " 
How many are free from the outward act of adultery, 
or that of the heart, which Jesus would equally repro- 
bate, is not for me to say. * If their own hearts do not 
condemn them, I shall not, unless they undertake to 
visit on me their own condemnation, — in which case I 
will, if possible, show them they are the sinners, and 
not me. But I will say, let none under the law of 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 21 

death, condemnation and punishment, deceive them- 
selves by supposing they are under the law of life, or 
have eternal life abiding in them. 

Now, in regard to the neglect of my family, I have, 
first, to justify myself for forsaking them, from the 
words of Jesus — if my friends will admit of such 
authority. If the record be correct, he said, u He 
that will not forsake father, mother, brother, sister, or 
wife, for my sake, is unworthy of me." Here is author- 
ity, or justification, from the highest source, which all 
Christendom would point out to me, as a guide, for 
committing the act I am charged with, of tf neglecting 
my family." But how is it about the act?' I have not 
yet been guilty, if guilt there would have been, by for- 
saking them. I have ever done my best to win my 
family to me and the views I conscientiously entertain ; 
and I do not doubt, but for the interference of the 
laws, and certainly for the interference and the 
meddling of others, and a corrupt public opinion, that 
we should now have been together, as happy a family 
as lives. This, my wife is not now willing to admit ; 
but, be that as it may, the public laws took from me 
the custody of my daughter, together with money suf- 
ficient to support my family several months, and were 
the means, directly or indirectly, of driving my son to 
a far-off shore, and my wife took herself from me. I 
did not forsake or send her away, but have ever, from 
the first, treated her with the utmost kindness it was 
possible for me to do, and both of our lives is the re- 
ward of the principles I have advocated and endeavored 
to live by — though this p'robably will not be admitted 
by those who know not the principles by which I am 
actuated ; yet, it is nevertheless a truth worthy of the 
investigation of all those who desire life, health, and 
happiness. 



22 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 

I say, " my wife took herself from me." It was not 
until after she felt herself insecure with me, in my 
principles. She saw I was determined to live for free- 
dom, and that the public were equally determined I 
should not. She knew I was pecuniarily embarrassed, 
and saw my friends one after another withdraw from 
me ; saw my business prospects ruined — me an outcast 
by society, and a penitentiary convict — her friends for- 
saking and chiding her for giving me the least counte- 
nance in my course — herself with impaired health ; and 
feeling the dependent situation that most or all females 
do in the servitude of their sex, she was forced, as 
thousands of others are forced, under similar circum- 
stances, to float with the current. But thanks be to 
the Omnipotence of truth, which is all-sufficient to save 
those who recline on it, even amid all these conflicting 
currents ! 

I attach no blame to any one for what has been done. 
I am even thankful for the persecutions I have received. 
I can see plainly that much good has and is to come 
from them, and only hope others may be in the right 
to enjoy the good as it comes. 

I pass no judgment on the " community." It is my 
brother who does so when he tells me he thinks there 
cannot be ten names obtained on a petition for my par- 
don, and that Mr. H.'s are obtained only because his 
sentence was harder than mine. It seems, if my brother 
was not deceived, that the forgiveness was not in their 
hearts ; but, because they did not punish me more, they 
would relieve him, if possible. I am thankful that I 
am an instrument, indirectly, if his pardon be granted, 
of having mercy shown him. 

I would gladly be "received socially," and can 
amply repay any society for all the kindness they will 
bestow on me, and a greater reward than I can give 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 23 

will await them ; but for all the favors they can possibly 
bestow I cannot prostitute myself to their sense of right, 
without not only rendering myself worthless to them, 
but my life a drug to me. 

As to living with my family, I can do so with great 
pleasure, if permitted, which I doubt not will be the 
case by and by, if not at present ; but I hope the pub- 
lic will not insist that I shall make my love as selfish 
and sensual as theirs, in order for me to live in my 
native town and state ; for if they do I shall have to 
" shake the dust from off my feet," and flee to another. 
I must, if I live at all, do so for a higher destiny than 
most mark out by their lives ; and if my family will 
join me, it is well, — I shall be very happy. If they 
.choose not to, they nor any one else ought to com- 
plain that I leave them. If I cannot live in love and 
harmony here, I ought to go where I can. I have 
lived an Ishmael long enough, and as soon as may be 
wish to join a community whose interests shall be 
united ; where love shall take the place of gold, peace 
that of war, plenty of want, health that of sickness, 
life that of death. In a word, I wish to place myself 
in a model kingdom of heaven, an emblem of what the 
world is to be. 

In former times, " those that believed had all things 
common ; " and if I choose so to associate with those 
who believe with me, my Christian brethren, at least, 
ought not to bring a charge against me for so doing. 
If they can make the most of life by living as they do 
and as I have done, I am content they should. I will 
not " compel them to come in," unless they be drawn to 
me by a power they do not wish to resist ; and, while I 
do not trouble them, I pray they do not impose their 
life or laws on me. 

As I said before, if my wife choose to join me, I shall 



24 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 

be very happy, indeed ; but if she choose not to, and 
rather live in the society where she is, as it has been 
or is, I shall regret it, but shall not complain. All the 
property that I have, if any, if the law* require it, or 
she ask it, I will leave her, and hereafter, if she need, 
will do what I consistently can for her. But my life, 
my soul, I cannot leave in the keeping of those who 
have no care for their own. 

For years past my heart has yearned for a state of 
society far above that which I have enjoyed. I have 
desired to join an association. My wife has not been 
ready; but by the marriage law of the state, which places 
the wife in the hands of the husband, I could have 
taken mine by force of arms, if I chose so to do, away 
from her friends and former associates, and carried her, 
contrary to her wishes, with me, and murdered her by 
inches ; and, long ere this, by exercising your own law, 
have freed myself from the obligations of the law, and 
been styled a worthy member of your society ; but I 
have tarried here, and endured everything but death 
itself, that I might win her to the only principles that 
can nov; save her or me, and the only principles which 
will save and redeem the world from the sin and death 
that threatens to annihilate the race. 

These sentiments may be feared, or may be mocked 
at, and I may be " stoned," " crucified," lynched, or 
robbed and imprisoned, yet they will live and flourish ; 
they are as impregnable as life or motion. The race 
may yield the earth again to be shrouded in savage 
darkness ere these immutable laws of God are repealed. 
But there need be no fears, unless it be they fear the 
practical workings of Christianity, or obedience to the 
laws of God, love or harmony, which will save us from 
the countless ills that afflict humanity on every side. 

It is true that many, very many institutions, — none 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 25 

but the false — are to fall, while mankind are to be 
saved. " Old things are to pass away," and many, or 
" all things to become new ; " but there will be better 
conditions for happiness for every man, woman, and 
child, than are now enjoyed by the most affluent. No 
one is to be robbed, plundered, seduced, or murdered, 
by those who embrace these truths. If anything of this 
nature is to be done, it will be by those only who remain 
in the present order of society ; and that evil will soon 
overcome itself by destruction, or be overcome by the 
good of the new. 

Will I be shunned if I say that the marriage law, as 
it now is, is the deepest and biggest root of the tree of 
evil ? It is even so ; though, when compared with the 
other institutions, this is deemed the " holiest of the 
holy." Under its strong arm is the slavery of slaveries, 
the curse of curses, the sin of sins. What a tale of woe 
does it tell to the world in the disease, deformity, and 
death, that it sends forth in the offspring of its bonds ! 
What does it tell us by the frequent calls for divorce, 
the separation of families, and, what is worse, the 
remaining together in unceasing tumult ! Wliat by 
the frequent outbreaks of licentiousness, from which the 
most honored, the clergy, are not exempt, and for which 
the members of our state and national governments 
are most notorious ! Who ever traced the atrocious 
murders and suicides to their cause, but found a large 
majority in this institution? The tragedy enacted in 
our own town, some eighteen years since, may give all 
its honor to indissoluble marriage, while the state may 
take the honor to itself of murdering a fellow-being, 
who, if guilty of the murder with which he was charged, 
might rightfully charge the murder to this law. The 
suicide so recently perpetrated, might it not be traced 
directly to the same cause ? It is painful to recur to 
3 



26 AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 

these tragedies, especially to tbeir friends, but the 
necessity of the case demands facts. How many mur- 
ders, having a cause here, that do not come to the light, 
God only knows. Almost innumerable volumes would 
be required to record the slow murders that have been 
and are being perpetrated, under the sanctity of " what 
God has joined together let no man put asunder ; " as 
though God required man to make a law to hold 
together what he has joined ! The laws not only en- 
deavor to hold together what God has not joined, but 
put asunder what he has joined. Who can say God 
joined two persons together to wrangle like cats and 
dogs ? God is love, and never designed that any should 
live together longer than they continue to love each 
other ; and this will be as long as life lasts, and without 
a separation in death, when the laws of God are learned 
and obeyed. If men and women are competent to 
make a contract of marriage, are they not competent 
to disannul that contract ; or if God " makes matches," 
may not God unmake them ? 

I am no advocate of licentiousness, legal or illegal, 
nor do I wish to impose my life or laws on any one. 
Those who are content with the present state of society 
and laws, I pray may be allowed to live under their 
influence ; but while I endeavor to honor the Christian 
religion in my life, I beg that my professing Christian 
brethren do not think to oblige me to dishonor it. 

And those, my brethren, who make no pretence to 
Christianity, I must remind, we are in a country to 
which our fathers fled from religious persecution, and 
styled it " the land of the free; " and shall it now be- 
come the persecutor, and impose bonds on me, especially 
when the national and state constitutions declare free 
religious toleration, which is exercised by half a score 
or more religious sects in every populous town ; among 



AN ACCUSATION, AND MY DEFENCE. 27 

which are the Quakers, who were once whipped for a 
religion that was thought seducive ; and the Shakers, 
with their peculiarities ? Among all these, may I not 
enjoy a religion differing from any one? 

The marriage institution is a religious ordinance, 
and the constitution of the State and the United States 
pretends to guarantee free religious toleration. If the 
marriage institution be not a religious rite, then mar- 
riages are not divine, — are not of God, but a mere civil 
contract; and shall the constitution of free America 
not allow her subjects to make and unmake civil con- 
tracts, if they choose ? Will it not be more wise to leave 
matters of love with God, who is love ? 

Those whom my brother mentions who would " assist " 
me, let them do so by assisting themselves, by being 
obedient to the laws of their own lives, by putting 
away all unnatural stimulants and narcotics, and un- 
wholesome meats, which will enable them to labor more 
excessively, if there were need ; and let them learn of 
John the baptist, daily baptism, — not a mere sham 
sprinkling, but a thorough cleansing of the whole body 
daily, — and they will be soon ready for the baptism of 
the spirit of Jesus, which shall teach them all truth, 
the least of which will not be forgiveness. 

I have much more on my mind that I would say in 
connection with this letter, but I have not room now, 
and I am making this article lengthy. 



CHAPTER II. 

PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL OF MAINE 
FOR MY RELEASE. 

To the Governor and Executive Council of the State 
of Maine. 

Gentlemen : — I understand you are, by a petition 
to be presented to you, to be made acquainted with my 
conviction, sentence, and imprisonment, in the jail of 
the county of Kennebec. This is to join those, my 
friends, in their prayer for my pardon and release, but 
not offering the same plea as an inducement for your 
granting it. 

Lest you should not receive that petition, I will give 
you a statement of my case. I am a lawfully-married 
man, and have ever, until the indictment for this 
offence, lived in as pleasant relations with my family 
as is usual. I have what I presume to you are pecu- 
liar views in regard to the marriage law, and all other 
statute laws. I am looking for the time to come on 
this earth, when the race will be so pure and good 
there will be no necessity for any other than the laws 
of God to hold men's passions in check. Then they 
will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be 
as angels in heaven. 

I was first charged with adultery, and then with 
lewd and lascivious cohabitation with an unmarried 



PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 29 

woman, in my own house. The evidence against us 
(she was put on trial with me for the same offence) was 
that we slept in the same bed. The rebutting evidence 
was her virginity, which was proved by two respecta- 
ble medical men in regular practice, after an examina- 
tion. On the first charge, adultery, the jury gave us 
a verdict of not guilty. On the second charge, before 
another jury, the verdict was reversed, and we have 
been sentenced, she to four months imprisonment in the 
county jail, or fifty dollars fine ; I to six months, or 
two hundred dollars. I have paid her fine, and she 
has fled from your state, as many others have fled in 
times past from the persecutions of those who could 
not so readily receive new thoughts. I am on my 
fifth week's imprisonment, and to induce you to release 
me from this confinement is the object of this petition. 

I earnestly pray with them that you let me go ; but, 
while I do so, I do not wish you to understand that I 
make a plea, or give my assent to a plea, of insanity, 
to excite your sympathy in my behalf. Not that I 
am not in want of your sympathy, — for I am, — but 
I do not wish to resort to falsehood, or what I think 
such, to obtain your favor, or any other good. 

Your petitioners, I doubt not, think me a non com- 
pos mentis ; and, perhaps, if you should seat yourselves 
by me for half an hour, and listen to what I could tell 
you I know, you would leave me verily believing and 
perhaps uttering " he hath a devil." Yet, for all this, 
gentlemen, I would rather lay here to fulfil my sen- 
tence, than you should understand I assert or give my 
assent to ask my freedom under the plea of insanity. 
If what I behold in the religious, moral, political, judi- 
cial, medical, physical, commercial and social worlds, 
are sanity, then I acknowledge with humility my in- 
sanity, for they are all reversed in me. But, gentle- 
3* 



80 PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND €OOTCIL a 

men, ere you pass such a judgment on me f remember 
that the sanity of one age becomes the msanity of 
another. The laws that but a few short years since 
had an honorable place in your statute books, and in 
your hearts, are now black with infamy. Such has 
been, and such will be, while states make laws, until 
they make the unchangeable laws of God or nature 
the base of theirs. Should this petition change your 
mind in regard to my sanity, I hope it will not be prej- 
udicial to my release by a pardon from you. If you 
credit the former petition and petitioners, rather than 
me, then, if you please, grant their prayer. If you 
credit me in regard to my sanity, then believe me fur- 
ther in regard to my innocence, which is equally worthy 
of your sympathy ; for I assure you there was no in- 
tention to commit the alleged crime, or any other 
crime, nor was crime committed. I know, gentlemen, 
that adulterous persons may judge from the circum- 
stances that I had adultery in my heart, or lascivious 
persons accuse me of lasciviousness ; but from " the 
pure in heart " such judgments could not come. 

I assure you, I know and obey a higher law than 
your smoky volumes have record of, or your smoky 
men or courts can understand or appreciate, and I 
should be judged by none others than those who know 
and obey that law, for they alone of men can render 
me a just verdict. If I do not misunderstand, your 
law grants a trial by one's peers or equals. Now, 
gentlemen, this could not be granted me at your courts ; 
at least, I feared so, and did not avail myself of the 
right at my trial to challenge my jurors. I often 
talked with those connected with the courts, and not 
in one instance did I find those who had an idea of 
purity such as I profess, and I think should be pos- 
sessed by every member of the human family, — at 



PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 31 

least by every one who professes membership in the 
church of Christ. 

I hope you will not think I am taking it upon my- 
self to judge your courts or their members, for "I 
judge no one," especially to condemn. I have this 
judgment which I give, from their own lips, and am 
often mocked with ridicule at the idea of purity, 
though at almost the same breath I am pointed to the 
Christian religion for a code of morals, from which I 
get and know how to appreciate the injunction, " Be 
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is 
perfect." Let me say to you, I am a believer, and I 
profess a somewhat consistent believer, in the Christian 
religion, which teaches forgiveness rather than condem- 
nation and punishment ; and those my equals or peers 
on a jury (if they could sit there), could in no wise 
condemn me, even if I were really guilty, and the most 
positive evidence given to that effect ; but, as said Jesus 
to the woman caught in the very act of adultery, would 
they say to me, "Go, and sin no more." 

You perceive my peers could not condemn me, and 
those that were not my peers could only judge me by 
their own lascivious hearts ; for there was no positive 
proof against me of lasciviousness or adultery, but very 
much of the most positive evidence that I could not 
have committed adultery, which I should have done, 
having had the opportunity, if I had had lascivious 
intentions. 

The " rule " of the judge at my trial is worthy of a 
passing note. It was in substance this : " Any act com- 
mitted by them, that would excite the lustful passions, 
would be cause for a verdict of guilty." He did not 
tell the jury in whom I might be the cause of exciting 
lustful passion to make me guilty, — whether in him 
the judge, they the jury, myself, or any one else in par- 



32 PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL* 

ticular ; but that, should I be the cause of exciting lust, 
no matter in whom, I must be found guilty. Under 
this rule I should decline promenading your streets 
with a lady, lest I be found a criminal. I too often 
witness the lewd remarks and gestures of men who 
throng our thoroughfares, in clubs, and even your 
church-doors, to suppose I could escape the prison 
under such a law, " though to the pure are all things 
pure." 

For walking the streets of my native city with a 
female whose virtue was untarnished, except in the im- 
agination of the lewd, whose only peculiarity was the 
Bloomer costume, so called, I have been chased and 
mocked with extreme insolence. 

One who teaches virtue is obliged to put up with the 
insolence of the vicious, and bear the reproach of a 
false modesty and a corrupt public opinion ; and it is 
for you, gentlemen, to say if continued imprisonment 
shall be added to these. 

It is not my object to judge those who found for me 
a verdict of guilty, or the court who sentenced me, or 
the public who reprobate me ; but I only wish to use 
these truths in my possession to free myself, if possi- 
ble, from the sentence of their condemnation. And 
those facts I do not wish to use in a spirit of retalia- 
tion, but rather in that of charity ; for the condemna- 
tion of the higher law resting on them for their sins, 
from which there is no appeal or escape, is all-sufficient 
without my harming myself by giving them even an 
angry thought. Now, gentlemen, do you think every 
word I have said of my innocence false ? — then, I beg 
you do not punish to reform me, for I assure you evil 
is only overcome by good, except in destruction ; in 
which case it should be left in the hands of the evil 
to perform. 



PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 33 

Do you think society need be protected from my 
doing them harm ? I hope to be able to present you 
with a petition, from those who know me well, saying 
they deem me an inoffensive man, and praying that 
you pardon me, — which tells you in substance I am 
no wolf, which, if set at liberty, will prowl about your 
premises. 

Do you fear to forgive me lest it open a wide door 
for other of my fellow-prisoners to trouble you with 
their petitions ? I assure you it is $, door you may 
with the utmost safety throw wide open, if your object 
be to reform the fallen, which I should wish cannot be 
doubted. It is the life of Christianity, the science of 
reform, to forgive. As we forgive, so are we forgiven ; 
" the measure we mete is measured to us again. 5 ' Then 
measure to men charity and kindness, that the same 
may echo and reecho, until its influence shall fill the 
world, and sheathe every sword, and unhinge every 
prison-door, and let the captive go free, bearing on his 
heart the influence of the kindness you bestow on him. 

And while you are doing this great kindness to the 
fallen, do not feel that you are no recipients of the 
blessings you bestow ; for you are the " members of one 
body," the whole of which is saved when you cure the 
diseased limbs, and may I not say the whole of which 
must be lost or destroyed, if not cured in a similar 
manner to that which I have pointed out. It is true 
that " they that take the sword shall perish by the 
sword ; " or, in other words, evil shall perish by evil, 
while the good must be saved by good. They are dis- 
tinct principles, and cannot work together. We are 
evil when we think to overcome evil by evil, and all 
punishments are evil. 

Pardon me, gentlemen, for thus presuming to in- 
struct or dictate you ; for be assured it is with the 



34 PETITION TO GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 

most benevolent intentions that I have thus spoken to 
you. 

Do you think I am " flush " with money, and can 
pay the two hundred dollars' fine for my liberty? I 
assure you I have met with a succession of pecuniary 
losses, and am embarrassed with debts that it will be 
very difficult indeed for me to extricate myself from ; 
and now, through the interposition of your laws, and 
the reprobation of a corrupt public opinion, I am de- 
prived of my former lucrative business, which would 
render it very inconvenient, indeed, for me to meet the 
desired fine ; and besides this I have a wife and daugh- 
ter, who need all the means I have at my disposal ; and, 
more than this, it would be a violation of a high moral 
principle that I have within me to purchase my liberty, 
which by a divine right belongs to me, without the 
payment of gold. And, above all these considerations, 
gentlemen, I wish to teach my professing Christian 
brethren, that it is better to forgive than to punish a 
brother man whom they would reclaim. If you do not 
think proper to grant me my 'prayer in setting me at 
liberty (or if you do), will you please come to this 
prison personally, and examine carefully into the merits 
of the prisoners, and learn if there be not one, two, or 
more, who are worthy of your regard and their liberty, 
while I lay here, if need be, to fulfil my mission in 
rendering some or all more free by my bondage. 

For ages past, political, religious, and social reform 
and freedom, — the latter only another name for the 
former, - — have depended on bloodshed for their growth. 
But these are all reforms that need reforming, which 
I, in some measure, hope to be instrumental in achiev- 
ing. You see, gentlemen, from my position, I am no 
aggressor, no avenger. I can but teach, and then sub- 
mit to my fate, and that patiently and quietly, until 



PETITION TO JUDGE RICE. 35 

the time of my deliverance comes. I say teach. I 
must live a truth I teach, so far as I am permitted, 
else the truth is at least lost on me. 

I want, I sincerely ask the reality of what our 
fathers fought and bled for, and only obtained the 
shadow of. I want my natural rights, "life, liberty 
and happiness ; " the pursuit of the latter does not an- 
swer me. The living death or dying life that every- 
where surrounds me does not meet my internal want 
of life ; nor does the liberty to think, speak, and act 
as others do, and dictate I should, answer for the lib- 
erty God has given me in my spirit, and I trust will 
help me to live in my life. 

I do not ask another's life, liberty or happiness, or 
a right to infringe on either of those rights of my 
brother man to enhance mine, but only that I may be 
free to live truthfully, and thereby teach in what a true 
life consists ; and this by no means for me alone, but 
that you, and others who will, may be partakers with 
me of the blessing of that true life, unbounded liberty 
and everlasting happiness. Grant me this, gentlemen, 
my prayer, and I will ever remain your humble ser- 
vant in the promotion of good. 

Jas. A. Clay. 

Augusta Jail, Sept. 25th, 1854. 

May I ask another favor, the publication of this 
petition ? 



PETITION FROM JAMES A. CLAY TO HIS HONOR JUDGE 
RICE. 

Dear Brother, — 

Forty days have elapsed since you sentenced me 
to this sepulchre, in the midst of this wilderness of 



36 PETITION TO JUDGE RICE. 

sin. Does not my tarry suffice ? Have I not more 
than filled the demands of the public mind, for the 
seeming offence I have committed ? Or is there anger 
still, that dwell eth only in the bosom of fools, to be 
appeased, ere I am allowed to breathe without con- 
tamination the pure air of heaven, and chase without 
restraint over the hills and lawns of fair New Eng- 
land, in the freedom that the Red Man enjoyed ere 
our fathers fled from oppressive laws, and styled it 
" the land of the free " ? 

Say, tell me, my brother, is it not in your heart to 
forgive me ? And if it be in yours, may it not also 
be in the hearts of those over whose laws you preside ? 
Is there not too much magnanimity there to deny me, 
your brother in these bonds, this one consoling boon — 
forgiveness? Must my heart go out in supplication 
for so heavenly a virtue, and return to me with its 
aching void unsatisfied? I ask not this of your .rusty 
volumes that contain the law, or the blocks of granite 
that enclose them. I ask it not in your capacity as a 
iudge, but rather as a man, — a brother man, — a 
Christian man, having a common interest with me un- 
der one Father, who seeks an indwelling alike in each 
of our hearts. 

I thought, on the last Sabbath past, I saw you mix- 
ing with the eager multitude, making your way to the 
temple in pursuit of the bread of life, — not regarding 
this prison the more appropriate place to seek the 
" heavenly manna." Forgettest thou the saying of 
Jesus, " I was in prison, and ye visited me " ? The 
least of those whom you have sentenced to be buried 
here, beneath these massive blocks of granite, is the 
temple of the " living God," toward whom, if you 
could feel as forgiving as Jesus was to those who 
sought to take his life, it would bring you a comforter 



PETITION TO JUDGE RICE. 37 

such as worldly honors, pomp or riches can never bestow. 
Do you seek a bubble that shall burst, leaving you 
without even the remembrance of the gaudy colors to 
feed your hungry soul on ? Then pursue it with your 
fellows in yonder temple, whose spire points upwards, 
while its foundation is "on the sand." Do you seek 
the riches of eternal life, with a soul that hungers and 
thirsts after righteousness ? Take the good book, which 
you would have for a guide, and come to me, and oc- 
cupy this prison-home with me, and, if you are not 
totally blind, I will teach you greater truths than the 
world can receive. Are you deaf to this call ? Then 
hear what I have to say to you in your official capac- 
ity, in defence of the right, and as a plea for liberty 
and universal freedom. The constitution of the State 
of Maine, over whose laws you preside, declares free 
religious toleration ; that it shall not impose any form 
on any one, but that all shall have " the free exer- 
cise of their own religious sentiments, provided they 
do not disturb the public peace, nor obstruct others in 
their religious worship." — " And that all persons de- 
meaning themselves peaceably, as good members of the 
state, shall be equally under the protection of the laws, 
and no subordination or preference of any sect or de- 
nomination to any other shall ever be established by 
law." 

It happens the religion which I have embraced is 
the Christian religion, and is not of this world as it 
now is, and can have no need of the " protection of 
the laws," or any other protection than that of its own, 
which is love ; nor could it receive any without vio- 
lating its own sanctity. But it can plead, reason, en- 
treat, beg or petition, that other religions do not seek 
to destroy it, and petition that the state do not violate 
its own constitution by inflicting punishments on those 
4 



38 PETITION TO JUDGE RICE. 

who have not violated it ; or that it do not lend its arm 
to religious sects to impose on another punishments 
for actualizing, — living in the life of the religion that 
they only live in the shadow of, by forms and cere- 
monies. 

The marriage rite is a religious ordinance, so claimed 
by all sects, and to them conceded by the state, in per- 
mitting " all ordained ministers to solemnize the bonds 
of marriage." Now, may I not claim, and truthfully, 
too, the right to my religious sentiment, which is love, 
free and universal, and as other sects do, extend it to 
the sexual relations with such " bonds " as I choose to 
place myself under, or no bonds whatever, if I choose, 
other than those He who creates all life places me 
under, — provided I, as your constitution designates, 
leave all others to enjoy their religion in their own 
way, and am a peaceable member of society ? 

This is a question of no small moment, I assure 
you. It is this : Shall the Christian religion be tol- 
erated in Maine, or New England — " the land of the 
free," so styled by our fathers, who fled from religious 
persecution. Shall humanity groan under the accu- 
mulation of sin, in spite of the laws and courts to 
suppress it ? Shall God be disregarded until the judg- 
ments consequent on the transgression of his laws, 
be visited with two or ten fold more severity ? 

Shall the constitution of the State of Maine be 
prostituted to mercenary institutions for the demoral- 
izing of the race, and the crushing of free institutions, 
as the United States Constitution has to the crushing 
of freedom in the South, and the demoralizing of the 
nation, making American freedom a mock and a by- 
word with tyrants and despots ? I await your answer, 
by your opening or letting remain these prison-doors 
closed on me. To-day choose you which you will 



PETITION TO JUDGE EICE. 39 

serve, and say to the people by your acts, whether you 
strike for freedom or bondage, for God or mammon, for 
good or evil, for life or death. Do not fear to do the 
right, though the thunders of all earth's artillery 
frown on you, for the right is of God, and will pre- 
vail. 

You know something of my former life ; you know 
of my case by the evidence presented you at the trial ; 
you know that we proved to you a purity in the sexual 
relations " almost unknown in the annals of history." 
You acknowledged it without a precedent in your 
court. You know the offence of which I was charged 
was in my own house ; and you know that my lawful 
wife and children did not appear against me ; and I 
know that my children (until the interference of the 
" authorities ") loved the woman as a mother or 
sister. 

You know I did not disturb the public peace, except 
by actualizing their own religion in my own house ; 
which incensed them against me, and for which she 
(the woman) was thrice thrown into prison, and re- 
deemed by friends, and at last by gold, and has fled 
from your state ; and now, to extract gold from me, 
which I have not, or to fulfil your law, you have sen- 
tenced me to this prison. And now, to fulfil a higher 
law, let me go, I pray you. 

James A. Clay. 
To Richard D. Rice, Judge of the S. J. Court of 

Maine. 

Augusta Jail, Oct. 14, 1854. 



40 PETITION TO NEW GOVERNOR, 

PETITION" TO NEW GOVERNOR, OF 1855. 
To the Governor and Council of the State of Maine. 

Gentlemen : — 

Please permit me to solicit your favor in granting 
me a release from further confinement in this jail, by 
sentence of Judge Rice, of the Supreme Judicial 
Court of this, the County of Kennebec. I petitioned 
your predecessors without avail. I send you a copy of 
that petition, that you may understand me as fully as 
I am able to make you do now. I have spent some- 
thing more than four months of my sentence ; therefore 
but little less than two remain unfulfilled. Do not, I 
beg of you, turn a deaf ear to my prayer. The time, 
though short, which I should have to lie here to fulfil 
the sentence, would be of much importance to me. 
You may be assured that it will prove no dishonor to 
you if you grant my petition ; therefore, if you can, 
please gratify me, and your own sense of justice and 
humanity. Very truly, yours, 

James A. Clay. 

Augusta Jail, Jan. 5th, 1854. 



This petition was to Gov. Morrill and his Council, 
who were famous for their " Maine Law " advocacy. 
The reader already understands that the release was 
not granted me. 



CHAPTER III. 

FREE LOVE ; OR, LOVE IK FREEDOM. 

This subject takes a wide range. It necessarily in- 
volves the relation of the sexes, and through that the 
church, the state, and the nation ; therefore, the social 
and moral, the religious and spiritual, and the political 
and universal harmony of the world. 

At the mention of the relation of the sexes, immod- 
esty clothes herself with a false modesty, and whispers 
hush, hush ! while her cankering pollution is greedily 
gnawing at the very vitals of humanity. The religions 
of the world draw around them their wardrobes of 
" sackcloth " to reflect their darkness without, while 
they cover that within, which they fear should come to 
the light of investigation, and shout " heretic ! " " blas- 
phemer ! " " infidel ! " while every step toward science, 
humanity, God's true laws, or Christianity, has to con- 
tend inch by inch with the extreme of the power of 
their inquisitions, persecutions and scandal, to inflict. 
The governments of earth, the offspring of a false re- 
ligion, cry " order," " justice," " freedom," " protec- 
tion," which they mockingly pretend to guarantee to 
the people, while they insultingly impose on them con- 
fusion, injustice, bondage, and destruction. 

It is past the middle of the nineteenth century of 
the Christian era, and we as a people, at least in pre- 
cept, honor Christianity almost to idolatry. As a 
nation we boast of virtue unsurpassed by any other, 
and of a government outvying all. It is here, then, 
4# 



42 FREE LOTE; OR, LOVE IK FREEDOM, 

of all other lands on earth, that humanity should ven- 
ture to strip from vice this garb of virtue ; from anti- 
Christianity her sanctimonious covering, that forbids 
the light of truth from shining ; and from government 
her usurpation and destruction, under the plea of protec* 
tion and salvation. 

There is no modesty, no religion, no government, or 
laws, short of obedience to the laws of Grod or nature, 
that are worthy of an effort to sustain. But woman 
and man, the noblest of God's work on this material 
earth, who for these falses have been sacrificed in count- 
less numbers, are worthy of salvation, ay, redemption 
and communion with the angels in heaven. Though 
these idols, these creatures of a perverted education 
and false imagination, fall and crumble back to dust, 
fear not, but know you, that if you abide in the truth 
of your own bosoms, according to your own understand- 
ings, you cannot be lost ; but, if false to that light for 
some external taper, it may fail you and leave you in 
the dark. 

That light is that which it is said " lighteth every man 
that cometh into the world," It is love, — the love 
of our own natures, which we have been taught must 
be crucified, subdued, warped, placed in bonds to some 
external thing by some external law. Then bear with me 
charitably, I pray you, and do not imagine I have 
aught but love in my bosom for humanity, while I 
speak ill of these institutions which have led to such 
false practice, and to sustain which we have suffered to 
such a fearful extent. I repeat, fear not, though these 
institutions crumble in your grasp ; for on their disso- 
lution depends your salvation. 

Freedom and love, of which I am about to treat, are 
two distinct principles, harmonious in themselves and 
with each other, and neither can be trespassed on with- 



eree love; or, love in freedom. 43 

out evil consequences following. If any love evil rather 
than good, we should leave them free to pursue it, even 
unto death. The worst they will do is to rid the world 
of themselves ; while, if we step in to prevent, in any 
other manner than that of love, we not only make them 
grasp the evil with more vehemence, but we involve 
ourselves in the evil with them, without the possibility 
of bestowing any benefit whatever. 

Freedom is a universal desire of our natures, whether 
we be good or evil, and love is hardly less so. Each 
is as firmly rooted as our lives ; our very existence 
is dependent upon the two principles combined. And 
each principle is dependent upon the other, as any virtue 
is dependent upon every other virtue, or any vice upon 
every other vice. Freedom cannot be enjoyed without 
love, though we may hurrah for freedom from '76 to 
time without end. Nor can love, pure and holy, exist 
with bonds, or without being free, though we may laud 
the marriage institution to the skies. These two prin- 
ciples, each of themselves so desirable, are not, when 
united, the bane of society, but rather the savior of 
the race, — the life of the human family. 

God is love, or a spiritual element in which we live ; 
and freedom may be said to be an element in which 
God lives ; and if we enjoy one principle we do both. 
Said one, anciently, " Whom God has made free, is free 
indeed." Whom love has made free, is free indeed, is 
of the same purport ; God being love, and free, and 
having an indwelling in our hearts, shall we not be in 
love, and free also ? What else can we make of the 
state of living in God, and he in us, but love in free- 
dom ? 

Love is an attractive principle, acting on the evil as 
well as on the good ; while the repulsive force is in the 
evil, which separates itself from the good, lest it lose 



44 Mee love; Or, love in freedom. 

its identity in a contact with the good. Are there those 
who can harm themselves by freedom, or love, or the 
two combined? Shall therefore all be denied freedom, or 
love, or both ? The limitation of one is the limitation 
of the other, and the limitation of either is the cur- 
tailing of life. It might as well be said of all that 
their food and drink shall be measured to them, be- 
cause some do not use food and drink properly ; or 
that, because one loves meats to-day, they shall eat 
meats always, instead of making a change to bread or 
fruit ; or that bread and fruits shall not be eaten by 
one, but that each shall eat meat, bread, or fruit, 
exclusive of any other diet. Such would be die-it in 
reality, and not life, and such is die-it in the present 
system of exclusive lust, or bondage and hatred, that 
exists in the place of virtue, freedom and love. 

It is plain to me that such restrictions in food would 
have a tendency to destroy the relish for the more pure 
and healthy, and create a morbid appetite for that 
which is impure. So of bondage, or exclusiveness in 
love. It is death to the noble aspirations of the soul. 
Suppose it were possible that free love should lead to 
greater licentiousness the few or many who are 
licentious, — what then? The licentious can only 
couple with their own kind, and continue mal-practice 
to their own ruin ; and not as now have those who 
would be pure and free from it submit to their pollut- 
ing embraces, creating the evil where it would not oth- 
erwise exist. But no such result is to follow, but 
.rather exactly the reverse. Men are blind in this mat- 
ter, as in most of their other doings, and think to over- 
come one evil by another ; but they are to learn that 
the transgression of one of God's laws is not to be 
overcome by the transgression of another. The evil 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 45 

which now exists legalized will be lessened, and it will 
not be increased anywhere. 

Those who teach freedom of love, also teach purity 
of person, and the race are to be taught the legitimate 
uses of the sexual organs, of which they are now so 
misinformed ; and they will strive to profit by the teach- 
ings when they know all, and will succeed, too, by 
obtaining a degree of purity and pleasure that but few 
can now appreciate. 

There is really no blessing to be taken from man- 
kind, nor is there any curse to be given them. Nor do 
we propose to wrest from man the sword or any other 
evil by the same power that he now holds the sword or 
evil. Do not think to overcome ignorance with igno- 
rance, death with death, evil with evil ; — such is now 
the vain effort of the world ; — but rather give life for 
death, light for darkness, truth for error, knowledge 
for ignorance, good for evil, love for hatred, and free- 
dom for bondage. And to whom shall harm come of 
this ? Not to those who receive good for evil ; and it 
cannot any more come to those who give good for evil. 
Evil shall only come to the evil, and from the evil. It 
cannot come from the good, or reach the good. Those 
who are so blinded that they cannot receive the good, 
may think to do evil to overcome what they think to be 
evil, or good ; but on such will their evil recoil, leav- 
ing us, if we are good, unharmed. The law of salvation 
is in the good, — it is in being good ; and the law of 
destruction is in the evil, — it is in being evil. 

For what I have to say of free love, or love in freedom, 
I have my own experience to sustain me, as well as 
sound philosophy. Though very humble, I do not feel 
that I am the lowest of the low, the vilest of the vile, 
in point of morals ; though I am accused of licentious- 
ness because I advocate free love, and have been tried 



46 free love; or, love in freedom. 

before the courts of men, and by them condemned ; 
sentenced and imprisoned as brutes should not be. If 
there doth a mark appear on me, it is only the reflec- 
tion of the marks of their own hearts. God has not 
put one there for free love ; and that suffices for me. 

For much that I am, — good it seems to me compara- 
tively ; others may call it evil if they must, — I am 
indebted to love in freedom — to good women who 
could take me to their bosoms in love when I wished 
to go there, and let me go in freedom when I chose 
to do so ; neither of us giving or receiving any earthly 
bond whatever. I never had a more healthful, enno- 
bling, refining influence exerted over me than was done 
by women, free, independent, truthful women, who 
loved in accordance with nature's laws, rather than ac- 
cording with the prostitution of statute law. 

There are many objections to free love, that come 
up to the undisciplined mind — to those who have no 
thought of doing well without some external force of 
evil to stimulate them ; but such objections are all 
answerable, and will be answered to themselves satis- 
factorily, as they progress in the knowledge of the 
truth. Such need only to pursue the truth they already 
are in possession of, that a greater light may shine on 
their path. It is useless that we close our eyes to the 
ray of light that environs us, and pray for all wisdom. 
It is only by being truthful to our present convictions 
of right, that greater truth will unfold itself to us. 
One objects, saying that females will be seduced and 
abandoned. It is not so ; they will be loved, honored, 
respected and cared for, for their life and virtues. It 
is now that woman is abandoned, and often more than 
abandoned and degraded by servitude — driven to 
prostitution and to death, with a hope to save them- 
selves in life ; wedded and unwedded pollution. 



FREE LOVEj OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 47 

These are hard sayings, but the doings are more so. 
None who have a knowledge of the doings in our 
cities will deny the truth of the prostitution out of 
wedlock there ; and the calendars of our county jails 
own up to some extent there. But think you they tell 
all, or one tithe ? Prostitution in wedlock would seem 
out of joint to those who think everything lawful 
godly ; but if it is not prostitution when a worthy 
woman is obligated to submit to the lusts of an un- 
worthy husband, whom she cannot truly love, then, in 
Heaven's name, what is it ? It might, perhaps, better 
rank with the next crime to murder, whose penalty is 
state's prison for life, were it not made honorable, as 
murder committed by the state's authority is. 

It is regarded as a shame, and a disgrace, that a 
woman make known her pure, godlike love, if she be 
possessed of such a virtue, in the degradation of the 
race. And she must blunt the passion, and perhaps 
blot entirely out the highest attribute of the Deity 
in her kind, and wait for a companion until some one 
comes along by chance who fancies her, perhaps solely 
for her external appearance ; perhaps for a legacy she 
is to inherit, or may be because he cannot be better 
suited, or get whom he wants when, in fact, their souls 
are entirely unfitted for each other, and she, of course, 
must accept if he be not as repugnant as the swine; 
for the world is a chance-game with her, and she 
may never have another opportunity of marriage, and 
will not only have to live alone unloved, but will have 
to bear a reproach almost approaching to scorn, that 
is often heaped on the unmarried of her sex ; and, fur- 
ther, she may be driven to the most abject slavery for 
a sustenance ; and soon, with her lonely condition and 
excessive toil, may come declining health, which will 
throw her on the charities of the world, cold as they 



48 FREE LOVE; OB, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 

are, from whence she is finally cast into the poor- 
house to die. This is no fancy sketch, or one of un- 
frequent occurrence. Even in America, the land of 
the so-styled enlightened, virtuous free, the bitter 
moans of poor, crushed, bleeding humanity ascend 
from almost numberless cottages unceasingly. 

And what evil there is in making a choice of partners 
on the part of the female, has somewhat of a counter- 
part on the part of the male. The system of courtship 
is much like the trade of the world — a system of 
swindling, in which both parties are cheated ; one of 
honesty, a priceless gem, by making things appear what 
they are not; and the other by getting what they do 
not want, or paying too much. Perhaps I judge by 
myself when I say they do not hold forth the soul as 
it is, good or evil, to make choice of a congenial one 
for a life-companion, but rather hold back the little 
faults or the big ones until the fatal knot is tied, and 
then comes the bitter cup, the very dregs of which 
must be swallowed, and death alone (oftentimes a most 
welcome messenger to one or both) can relieve them 
of a false step, which they both may have taken in 
blindness and innocence at first. 

If monogamy was the true social condition of the 
race, and the two know each other well, and are well 
suited to each other, and their whole love and life 
there, which might never lessen under favorable cir- 
cumstances, it is almost a miracle if they remain 
so through life in the present falses of society. The 
business of society, in its present organization, is such, 
that the sexes, though by law partners for life, are sep- 
arated, and one, from the difference in circumstances, 
may form habits which, though lawful and honorable 
in the sight of the public, may be exceedingly repug- 
nant to the other, who must submit, though it be their 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 49 

xieath, or, what the world regard with more than equal 
horror, separate, and ever after live without the society 
of the other sex, or steal it in the dark, unbeknown to 
the world, or flee to parts unknown ; in either case 
sinking the moral principle in man to honor a corrupt 
law or public opinion. 

If the husband's business be dram-selling, or the 
like, in which the wife can take hold with him, and 
sink her moral principle with the decline of his, their 
cases may not be so fatal to their tranquillity. They 
may alike sip their wine, inhale the perfumes of to- 
bacco and brandy, enjoy their vulgar jokes, put their 
souls in their tills together, enjoy, as one, their swine's 
life, and inherit the swine's destiny, and all goes along 
as the world regards passable, with the accustomed 
prayers and blessings in the end. 

But such happy floating along with the tide does 
not always occur. The husband may go into the 
world to accumulate goods for his ease in future days, 
and, as he fills his coffers, place his heart and affec- 
tions there, and starve his wife's pure affections, while 
he surfeits himself to suffocation on the follies of the 
world. He adds acre to acre, house to house, ship 
to ship, bond to bond, mortgage to mortgage, scrip to 
scrip, slave to slave, — himself a slave to them all, 
burying himself or his soul beneath the rubbish; 
while the wife, no less industrious or attentive to the 
real wants of life, toils on at home with her little 
ones, not having cultivated covetousness by the swin- 
dling, grinding system of the husband outside, with a 
heart full of benevolence, may wish to relieve the 
needs of kindred hearts, and, for that purpose, desire a 
portion of their surplus gains, but is told by her lord, it 
is his, he earns it, and her wish must not be gratified. 

Thus they are separated in affections, in life, in 
5 



50 FREE LOYE ; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 

aims ; unloved by each other, because they are unlike 
each other, and yet held in a bondage as destructive to 
human happiness as chattel slavery, from which there 
is no respite but in death, which is often courted as a 
welcome visitor, though it comes not, perhaps, before 
entailing on some half dozen or more offspring a dis- 
position as unloving as that of the parents, and a con- 
stitution proportionately diseased and discordant, and 
a soul " totally depraved," the creed tells us, whose 
stains can only be washed out, and the soul redeemed 7 
through the blood of Jesus ; expecting a redemption 
only after the body is sent to the grave, hades or hell ; 
and, to cap the climax of the absurdity, charge the 
whole affair to the dispensation of Divine Providence I 
It is a providential order of universal nature that the 
seeds of death are sown with sin, that such follies may 
not always continue ; but it is more like divinity to 
cease sinning, and incurring such penalties and judg- 
ments. 

The one case of illustrative estrangement which I 
have given is by no means a solitary one ; but there 
are very many ways in the present false organization 
of society, and ignorance of its members, to alienate 
those who are sworn to be loving partners for life. 

The fact of possession or ownership, to the exclusion 
of others, has a direct tendency to lessen our love 
for the object, unless we are of that completely selfish 
make, that we wish to own and enjoy everything alone, 
and then we are unfit to enjoy anything ; we are 
really unfit to live, for we do not love ourselves or any- 
body else, but only have a hatred or jealousy that 
any one else shall enjoy that which we cannot. The 
tendency of such is dissolution, because it is desola- 
tion of spirit ; not in love and harmony with any- 
thing, but in discord with everything. 



free love; or, love in freedom. 51 

The generous man enjoys the most always, and the 
more when he imparts to others needing. When we 
adorn our premises, it is not that we may enjoy the 
beautiful alone, but that others may admire with us, 
thereby enhancing our own happiness by imparting to 
our neighbor equally so far as the sense of seeing is con- 
cerned. We wish not to enjoy the beautiful scenery 
exclusively, for such would deprive us of at least a 
large proportion of our happiness in that direction ; and 
in the same ratio that our benevolence permits us to 
impart of our other blessings to our fellow-men, is 
our own happiness enhanced ; even the queen of all 
blessings, love,, which we have thought to enjoy ex- 
clusively. 

Every good, if we are godlike, we will enjoy in com- 
mon with every one else who is godlike. It cannot be 
otherwise, if God loves and harmonizes with himself. 
Whom we truly love are ours, we are theirs, and we 
all are as one with God, where there is wisdom, 
union, harmony, peace, plenty, and all the blessings 
attendant on a divine life. Freedom in love will 
bring men into those relations with each other, and 
then the efforts now wasted in pilfering, or living on 
each other, wisely expended in producing, will so 
abundantly supply the wants of the race, that, like 
the air we breathe, we shall ever be supplied, without 
fear of ever coming to want. Men can have but a 
faint idea of what harmonic industry and a just dis- 
tribution of its products is to do for impoverished 
and robbed humanity ; which, as every other blessing 
is to come through obedience to God's law of love and 
freedom. 

There is now, amid all the waste of that which is 
good for man, and the production of so much that 
only degrades and destroys 9 and the waste of energy, 



52 free love; or, love in freedom, 

to grasp without producing, and the demands of a prof- 
ligate government, war, &c., a great abundance for 
all ; only wanting love and wisdom, the God in each 
one's bosom, to distribute and use properly. Yet, on 
each hand, are mouths wanting bread, and bread want- 
ing mouths, — the one famishing and the other decaying ;, 
and the material starvation and waste, if possible, has 
more than its equal in the spiritual famine which is by 
no means confined to the poorer classes, but all partake 
of the unhappiness consequent on their unnatural posi- 
tion. 

Those whose wealth gives them situations towering 
far above their brothers, suffer as much with fear, lest 
they, in their turn, through the caprices of fortune, 
become the servants, while those now in servitude fill 
their places as masters. And there is much reason to 
fear as great a revolution and reverse of fortune, as the 
pages of history bear record of in the past. Such is 
the discord, strife, and fear, that the world is more a 
bedlam for demons than a paradise for human beings 
to dwell in. 

Shall men, calling themselves civilized, enlightened^ 
Christian men, strive, and toil, and waste their ener-, 
gies in fruitless efforts to obtain happiness in riches, 
when they have even within the precincts of their own 
church, with their own kind, all the externals for so 
much enjoyment, only wanting the internal life to make 
the world a paradise ? Have they forgotten the worthy 
saying of Jesus, " Seek first the kingdom of heaven"? 
It would seem so, since almost the whole life is wasted 
on externals, together with a looking afar off for God 
and his kingdom of heaven, instead of having them 
both within their own bosoms.. 

Will not men leave the future to the care of itself 
and now enter the kingdom of heaven by honoring God's. 



FREE LOTE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM, 53 

law of love and freedom ; and, instead of relying on an 
•external force of evil, which destroys, put their trust 
On an internal attraction of good, which will save and 
redeem the world to its Eden innocence ? 

If men could stand outside or above, and see the 
result of their conduct toward each other, even toward 
those who partake at the same sacramental board, they 
would be inclined to hide themselves for shame from 
the gaze of any class of creatures above the swine. 
Indeed, they will find a match for their unenlightened 
selfishness and folly nowhere else in the brute creation. 
An abundance for each and all, yet worrying themselves 
and each other, wasting prodigally, to see which shall 
hoard the most and -enjoy the least. 

The wise, generous freeman, who has beautified his 
premises for his kind, is not expected to throw open 
his gates and let his gardens be filled with swine to 
desolate his grounds and ravish his jessamine, lily, and 
rose ; but, if he be really wise, he will not only invite 
his neighbor to see, but to partake of all the blessings 
he enjoys, thereby enhancing his own happiness. 

All blessings are enhanced to us by dispensing to 
others ; so are all evils multiplied by the same course. 
This is a wise, immutable, universal law of nature, 
from which there is no appeal. Were it otherwise, I 
would despair of the world's redemption. If the de- 
stroyer was not the destroyed also, the land might be 
devastated time without end. Do we wish to do or 
receive good to ourselves, we must do good to others. 
Do we wish to do or receive evil to ourselves, do that 
to others also, and it shall do us more good or evil 
than though we had done the good or evil to ourselves 
directly. 

There is another order of nature worthy of our ob- 
servation. All evil is finite, because it destroys itself, 
5* 



54 free love; or, love in freedoms 

and all good infinite, because it is of God, and cannot 
be destroyed. Therefore, do we wish infinity, we must 
be in or with the good. The good conies of obedience 
to God's laws, and the evil of the transgression. The 
one is or results in life, love, freedom, wisdom, har- 
mony, forgiveness, charity, and the like, embracing all 
the virtues, for they are as one ; while the opposite or 
transgressions of the law are, and result in, death, 
enmity, bondage, folly, discord, punishments, or judg- 
ments and condemnation. The one carried to any extent 
in the evils, ending only in death ; and the other to 
any extent in the goods, reaching to God, life everlast- 
ing, or eternal life. 

It will be understood, by the observing r that to begin 
with charity and follow up, we are led to a life with 
God ; and to begin with condemnation and follow down, 
it is to death. It will also be understood by the care- 
ful observer that each is separated from the other, — 
two distinct classifications of principles, — all of one 
good, and all of the other evil, and that we follow one* 
as I have said, to life, or fall into the other, and follow 
to death. Also may it be understood that whatever 
we give to others we take to ourselves. Now, again i 
if we require bonds of marriage, or other, we are in 
the same ; not with God in freedom, in love, but in the 
transgression of his law, which we must follow to 
death, or flee it as we can. If we would be true we 
must not " forswear " ourselves, but fulfil the law of 
our loves as they present themselves to us, which will 
be performing unto God all oaths required. The 
strictly true man or woman cannot even make a prom- 
ise to do or not to do, except to do the right, and not 
to do the wrong. He or she that makes a promise to 
be performed in the future, binds themselves to the 
wisdom of the present, rather than keeping themselves- 



free love; or, love in freedom. 55 

free to act as the growth of intelligence shall dictate. 
Beside, we know not what circumstances may inter- 
vene to make it impossible to perform, to-morrow, the 
promises of to-day. 

But to return. There is everything to induce us to 
be good, and nothing in nature to induce us to be evil ; 
everything to induce us to dispense the good to oth- 
ers, and everything to induce us to stifle the evil within 
our own bosoms ; and none but the blind, blind, blind, 
will do otherwise. 

If we have a good, and think to enjoy it alone, it 
will prove an evil to us ; and if we have an evil, and 
stifle it within our own bosom, it will prove a good to 
us. 

As it is with the wise, generous freeman, of whom I 
have spoken, it is not with the foolish, miserly slave, 
who hoards his wealth within his coffers, thinking to 
enjoy his luxuries alone, — in anticipation his comforts 
forestalled which are never realized, — a present tene- 
ment tottering to decay, ready to fall on his head, 
while he says to himself, I will have goods for many 
years' comfort. But he only deceives himself; the 
years of comfort never come to him ; his soul is dead, 
so to speak, his life ebbs away, his body is given to the 
worms, and his shining dust, that has fooled him all his 
earth-time, more than probable, falls to a prodigal son, 
to fool him also, though it may be in another direction. 
How like the miser, who is stingy of his dollars, always 
fearing lest he come to want, or another enjoys with 
him, is the jealous, poverty-stricken in love, who thinks 
there is more of life for him shut up in his narrow soul, 
holding exclusively to himself, than in expanding as 
wide as the earth ! He does not realize that the riches 
of earth are measured to him by himself, and that 
when he can love all, all are his. He dwells not fully 



56 FREE LOVE ; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM* 

in that spiritual element which is the author of all 
good. He knows not that he may be one with God, 
and cast his eyes on the vast expanse of creation, and 
say to himself* " All, all the good is mine, and the evil 
I do not wish." Himself is evil, and he covets the evil 
which never satisfies. 

The disparity of the pay between male and female 
labor serves to degrade one sex, which is also the deg* 
radation of the other. The virtues of either are de- 
pendent upon the virtues of the other, and the virtues 
of both on their equality and independence. It is cer- 
tain that the dependent situation of the female can do 
no less than effeminate the race* But it is a shame 
that there is necessity for an appeal to the selfishness 
of man, in this Christian land, for the rights of woman ! 
Have not our mothers, sisters, our wives and daugh- 
ters, rights, natural rights, to be pecuniarily independ* 
ent with us ? Answer this, ye Christian sons, brothers, 
husbands and fathers ! I say, answer it to the God that 
rules in and reigns over you, and no longer rob and 
enslave the gentler sex, because, forsooth, heathen 
nations have done it before you. 

From barbarism to civilization there is every degree of 
disparity between the condition of the sexes ; and when 
we attain to Christianity, we will then find them equal, 
free, and independent. 

Now, though the wife and mother, by her industry, 
sustain the whole family on the mean pittance that cus- 
tom awards her for her service, still the husband, like 
the southern slave-master, may own the whole. But 
this law and custom is being very much modified in our 
present day. The change, though imperceptible to those 
who move with the mass, is great. 

There is a great similarity between the marriage 
institution and American chattel slavery, and I consci- 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 57 

entiously entertain the opinion that the latter cannot 
possibly exist without the former ; and, with the present 
marriage institution, slavery in some, if not in its 
worst forms, must continue. 

There is not in reality the great difference, by some 
imagined, between the chattel slavery of the south, and 
the wages slavery of New England. There are certain 
features in the latter more obnoxious to the looker-on 
than corresponding features in the former, though in 
other features, or in the whole, they may be very much 
reversed. We are not inclined to see clearly the sins 
we are accustomed to witness ; therefore it would be 
well that we be charitable to others' sinning, lest we, 
being blinded by our own, are committing greater sins 
than those we condemn. The command of Jesus, " Let 
those without sin cast the first stone," was wisely said, 
and to the purpose. He well knew that they without 
sin would not be caught sinning or throwing stones, but 
like himself would be charitable and forgive. All those 
who would inflict chastisement on the condemned, would 
do more wisely to say as said Jesus, " Go, and sin no 
more." In fact, there can be no condemnation, except 
by the condemned. 

It really matters but little whether one be driven to 
his labor by the fear of the slave-driver's whip, or by 
cutting off his natural resources of life, and through 
the fear of famine subjecting him. 

The southern planter, who is kind and wise, may have 
a love for his blacks that will raise them above sla- 
very, while the northern capitalist may sink his so- 
called free labor to the most abject servitude. The one 
might wish to retain their masters over them for their 
love and wisdom to cheer and guide them, while the 
other might abhor theirs, and be ready to assassinate 
them for the oppressions suffered. It is really but 



58 free love; or, love in freedom. 

the absence of love as an incentive to labor that con- 
stitutes slavery, whether it be in the southern clime, 
under the driver's whip, or in a northern one, under 
the scourge of capital, or in the church, under the mar- 
riage law, or the scourge of public reprobation. 

The labor of love is really the only labor that is 
without its slavery in some form. It matters not in 
what the labor consists, whether it be the raising of 
tobacco to damn the race, or preaching damnation from 
the sacred desk. But if we are redeemed, and are 
fully in God's free love, we are above all slavery, 
though the buyers, and sellers, and drivers, hover about 
us in numbers as countless as the locusts in Egypt of 
old. 

We need impressed on our minds the truth that the 
enslaver as well as the enslaved suffers from the unnat- 
ural position. The race is really an unit, and there can 
be no servitude imposed on one class by another with- 
out degrading both. In the kingdom of Heaven " the 
servant shall be the master," and the rule shall be love ; 
but such a kingdom, contrary to all present kingdoms 
or nations which rely on the sword and other deadly 
weapons, relies on an internal principle of love and 
life, which is to environ the earth. A servant who hath 
power to become master through love, even over one 
fellow-being, is deserving of more honor than he who 
conquers the world with the sword. But to return, for 
I am digressing. 

We honor the man for the heroism that can meet a 
brother man, sword in hand, for defence or deadly con- 
flict ; but a greater hero, a nobler man, is he who can 
meet an enemy with the naked breast, without the glit- 
tering steel for defence ; and quite as much of a hero 
is he who can meet the barbed arrows that come in the 
form of scorn, contempt, and ridicule, and neglect of 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 59 

the public, and former friends, for the advocacy of an 
unpopular truth. The world hath need of such heroes 
and heroines to redeem it from its popular sins. If 
such you are, my reader, you are ready for what I have 
to say to you. If such you are not, and I must be 
spurned from your presence, and that of every one in 
the community, for its utterance, nevertheless I must 
say it ; and, though you all " turn a cold shoulder " to 
me, I beg you examine before you cast the pearls under 
your feet, — for I assure you such they are, though you 
reject them as unworthy of your consideration. 

What I have said of love in freedom may more partic- 
ularly apply to spiritual love, which in purity precedes 
physical love; but the freedom to love should not stop 
here. Physical love is no less a demand of our natures 
than spiritual, and its freedom should no more be re- 
strained. A woman should not be denied the right she 
has by God or nature of bearing children, in freedom too, 
to the man she loves, and who loves her, when she has 
matured to womanhood, and has such a desire, any more 
than be denied her existence on earth. In fact, it is, 
and results in, the same thing. It is her existence that 
she obey the laws of God or nature, or the laws of her 
own being. It is at her peril that she do not do so, 
and a prolific cause of prostitution, female disease, and 
premature decay. Did the world realize how impera- 
tive was this demand of nature, and the consequence 
of disregarding it, it would not regard as an outcast 
the female who had direspected the conventional cus- 
tom of civilization, in becoming a mother out of wed- 
lock. Ere we claim the appellation of Christian, we 
should honor rather than dishonor the female who 
dared be truthful to the law of God or of love, written 
in her being, rather than be subservient to public opin- 
ion, or the statute laws of destructive nations. Well 



60 free love; or, love in freedom. 

may the world groan under its bondage and death, while 
it turns a deaf ear to the law of God, or love, written 
in everything that breathes, and bows with such honor 
and deference to the external or statute law, which 
gives only death to those who obey its mandates. 

There are but few circles that I enter but I can trace 
the direct marks, and everywhere the indirect traces, 
of this fell destroyer ; the denial of the God within is 
unknown as such to the many, and feared less than 
public reproach by the few. The internal life, the love, 
the God in man and woman, must succumb to some un- 
known God, to external laws, giving only enmity and 
death. Those who fear these corrupt and corrupting 
laws, and their adherents, more than they love God, 
must be driven by these fears to death ; but those who 
love the right, humanity, their own life, and God, will 
follow those laws, which are all life, love, wisdom, har- 
mony, and happiness. 

Many a parent has buried son or daughter, one 
after another, wondering why they were thus stricken, 
when the cause had a beginning in themselves, and an 
ending in carrying out the same system of deprivation 
of natural instincts or law, creating unnatural ones, 
which can only be pursued, as all things disregarding 
nature must, to destruction. I speak of nature and 
God as the same. We do great mischief in respecting 
the theology that separates God from nature. God is 
the life of all nature, from the coarsest plant to the 
humblest worm, and the proudest animal, man, or 
angel. Without him all would repose in death. 

Let society allow the female sex a proper remunera- 
tion for their labor, and grant them love in freedom, 
and their natural, unalienable right to bear offspring 
as their nature demands, without public reproach, and 
very many of the now crushed, fallen, and cast off by 



FREE LOVE; OB, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 61 

society, would be raised by the God within them to a 
degree of happiness and virtue that might well be en- 
viable to their sisters now in wedlock, who would and 
do spurn them from their doors. And these daughters 
alone would not be the recipients, but sons and the world 
would be equally blessed. 

The church may preach morals, the law may punish 
criminals, the physician may bleed, blister, and drug 
to save, but all to no purpose, but rather to flood the 
world with evil, inasmuch as the first has a standard 
of morals contradicting those implanted by the Deity ; 
the second is a law of death, rendering evil for evil to 
overcome evil ; and the third, like the other two, is a 
further abuse of nature's laws to overcome abuses 
already committed. Abolition, peace, temperance, 
woman's rights in the contracted sense, and the scores 
of other reforms that are being agitated, are but par- 
tial and fragmentary ; of no lasting service, if they do 
not arrive to and centre in this one great principle of 
reform — love in freedom. And once centred here, 
an admitted universal right, it will soon radiate, emit- 
ting such light on the world as but . few have merely 
dreamed of, for the far-distant future. There is, I 
doubt not, many a bachelor, who is worthy, respectable, 
and honorable, that would gladly become the father 
of children, but for the bondage of marriage, or dis- 
honor of becoming so out of wedlock — that would sup- 
port and educate his children with more care than a 
tithe of those now in bonds do ; giving to the mother 
all the blessings she now enjoys in wedlock, together 
with that of freedom, and relieving her of many other 
evils she now endures. 

How many of all who wed are really happy ? How 
many who have realized their fond anticipations ? The 
poet answers pretty well : 
6 



62 free love; or, love in freedom. 

" Mistaken souls, that dream of heaven." 

Heaven does Dot live in bondage, but rather in free- 
dom. It is there we seek it, else we seek in vain. 
We may have the faith of father Abraham, the wis- 
dom of Solomon, the patience of Job, the zeal of Paul, 
and the age of Methuselah, and devote the whole life 
in search of heaven or happiness in bonds, and still go 
down to our graves without finding it. 

I need not be told that the mass of mankind are 
happy in their marriage bonds, any more than be told 
the African slave is happy in his bonds. Ignorance 
may be a solace for what would otherwise be the deep- 
est anguish. But the facts tell us, if either condition 
affords happiness, it is only comparatively, and that it 
is the exception and not the general rule. Our bar- 
rooms, our smoke-saloons, our country stores and dram- 
shops, our business men who seek excitement in their 
business and money hoarding, in whose every thousand 
pocketed lies buried a human being, tell us the charm 
is not at home, but is sought in vain dissipation. 

I have thought it would be impossible to give sta- 
tistics, showing the proportion of comparatively happy 
ones ; knowing that it was something as much as pos- 
sible secluded from the public gaze. Family troubles 
are usually only known to friends as the necessity of 
the case requires. As a lady recently expressed 
to me in a correspondence : " It is one great lodge, 
in which members are sworn to secrecy by solemn 
oaths, the penalty for the violation of which is worse 
than a thousand deaths. Yet, for all this secrecy, 
it cannot be hid. ' Murder will out/ as the saying is. 
I presume there is hardly one but knows of some little 
difficulty or great trouble existing between a large por- 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 63 

tion of those families with whom they are on intimate 
terms." 

I have a statistic of English society that came to my 
hand casually (and I will here say that all these facts 
and principles came to me in a similar manner, rather 
than by any effort on my part), which I will give in 
the words that it came to me through the public press : 
" An English paper, descanting relative to the various 
qualities of connubial bliss, states that in the city of 
London, the official record for the past year stands 
thus: runaway wives, 1132; runaway husbands, 2348; 
married persons legally divorced, 4175 ; living in 
open warfare, 17,345 ; living in private misunder- 
standing, 13,279 ; mutually indifferent, 55,340 ; re- 
corded as happy, 3175 ; nearly happy, 127 ; perfectly 
happy, 13." 

This is no creature of the imagination, — nothing 
that comes from the opposers of the marriage law, — but 
a public document from the lovers of statute law, which 
they think is productive of good order. 

Now, what does all this mummery about legal mar- 
riage or legal divorce amount to ? What is there of 
all these connections that is sacred, holy, or divine ? 
What that a wise people would desire to be perpetu- 
ated? The only true marriage is that of love; and 
when that heaven-born tie ceases, the only holy con- 
nection is broken, and any other bond can only be 
enforced by destroying the parties concerned ; it mat- 
ters not what that bond may be, whether an oath backed 
up by penal laws, or a mutual contract perpetuated by 
public opinion. Where is the real difference whether 
all these ninety-six thousand couples are married by 
civil (uncivil) law, or without it ; or whether they sepa- 
rate by legal divorce, or without it ; or whether these 
eighty-five thousand that are living in mutual indiffer- 



b4 free love; or, love in freedom, 

ence, private misunderstanding, and open warfare, 
remain enslaved to each other by statute law and pub- 
lic opinion, or separate without legality, and form new 
connections when they choose ? Everything is in 
favor of individual freedom. To go into the cold cal- 
culations of dollars and cents, — which, by the way, is 
a pretty high standard with the world, for a certain 
amount of dollars makes vice virtue, as numbers legalize 
murder and make it honorable, — there was probably 
more than a million of dollars directly and indirectly 
expended to legalize these marriages, which, by every 
standard that is pure and good, are after all iZlegal. 
The four thousand legal divorces would, in our state, 
cost, perhaps, one hundred dollars each, which would 
be four hundred thousand dollars ; and what better is 
one of these connections for the legality, or what worse 
would be one of the separations without legal authority? 
Just the difference there is between the legalized mur- 
der of nations and the illegal murder of individuals, 
which is none at all in the moral point of view, except 
that the one is reprobated and the other is honored ; the 
one is committed without public charge, and the other 
is at the public expense, involving the whole in the 
sinful act. The one is an evil on a small scale, and 
the other on a large scale. The only real difference I 
can see between those marrying and divorcing them- 
selves, and the authorities marrying and divorcing, is 
that the one may be done without the meddling of any 
third party, or incurring any expense, and the other 
calls in persons who really have no business in the 
affair, and opens a door for a third party to live on or 
speculate out of the other two. 

How very much better it would be for those seven- 
teen thousand Londoners, who are living in open war- 
fare, to separate, than remain enslaved, and quarrel 



fREE love; or, love in freedom. 65 

like a nest of wolves! If England wishes to raise an 
army to carry on her wars, such are the relations in 
which to propagate her sons ; for those only best suited 
to the inhuman work of human butchery are propagated 
in such relations, — discordant in themselves, as Eng- 
land's whole aggressive system is discordant with itself 
and harmonious nature. 

Are England's shores so far away that England's 
wrongs and English laws may not be cited to show 
their effect on her subjects ? With slight exception, 
and that not always for the better, American custom 
is but the echo of her mother's voice. In the absence 
of special enactments, England's " common law " is the 
standard which is recognized as authority throughout 
the New World. Our fathers brought with them most 
of the follies of the Old World; and though they threw 
off England's yoke, it was by putting their necks into 
another, but little less worse to be borne ; and now, 
though we laud the name of freedom to the skies, as a 
nation we are guilty of requiring a servitude that Brit- 
ain's laws have long since ceased to tolerate. But we 
need not cross the Atlantic, or leave New England's 
soil, to find a similar state of affairs. 

Recently I conversed with a lady, formerly a teacher, 
who " boarded round," as is often customary in the 
country, and she told me that in a whole district in 
which she had taught, there was not a pair who were 
really happy in their domestic relations; though in 
a day's visit to each she might not have discovered 
any trouble, except as seen in the little children, who 
would not, if they could, conceal the fruits of their 
example. 

I was recently talking with a gentleman on this sub- 
ject, and he said to me, " This evil does not exist to the 
extent you imagine. You have dwelt on the subject 
6* 



66 free love; ok, love IN FREEDOM. 

so long, that you have it fixed in your mind that it is & 
reality, when it is not so." I proposed to him that we 
take one district with which he was acquainted, — which, 
by the way, was much more than an average of our New 
England society, in regard to externals, all except two 
being freeholders, and what is termed temperate men, 
and residing in a rural district, — and see what we 
could ascertain by analysis. The result was, out of ten 
pairs taken promiscuously, only three there were but 
my friend was ready to admit were " bad matches." 
Two had separated, two had fought with each other 
like tigers, sometimes requiring neighbors to interfere 
and separate them, and one or two were secretly ac- 
cused of being directly or indirectly the cause of their 
partner's death, and the others were known to have 
minor difficulties ; and one pair out of the three not 
included in the seven, — though for aught we know 
living comparatively happy together, — yet were sepa- 
rated in their church-going, for they could not sit under 
the same pulpit doctrine. After we were through, said 
my friend, " I will give it up ; you are better posted 
up on the marriage question than I." 

To say that any matches are happy, is only to say 
that love triumphs over the bonds, which makes the 
latter of no effect. It is when the true marriage of 
love does not exist, that the false one of bonds destroys. 

Now the fault is not so much in the people, though 
they were created in these falses, as in the false insti- 
tutions. Nature, ever ready in her beneficent designs, 
makes the best of everything, and it is by dint of great 
perseverance in pursuing the wrong that so much evil 
exists. We were made for more than one love, or the 
love of one little isolated household, with our hand 
against every one's, and every one's against us. Are 
we not one great brotherhood, and God the Father of 



fcREE lo Ve; or, love in freedom. 67 

Us all, and our interests a unit ? And how shall we 
realize such a fact, except by a freedom to love all ? 
Where the man, where the woman, that can truly say 
they never loved but one, though their whole life-long 
education has been to teach them that such love was 
sinful ? 

Oft have I asked the question, " Did you never love 
but one?" and I never yet had a full, frank, open, 
negative answer. But if such persons exist, their 
isolation should be respected. They should live their 
own true life, and should be equally content that com- 
munists should theirs. 

A mother, that has a second, third, or fourth child 
born to her, does not love the first less ; and a humane 
mother can love other children than her own by birth. 
All that she can truly love are her own by the great 
tie of nature, and it is only unnatural, a perversion of 
nature, that she does not love each and all. 

Who ever heard the anecdote, without applauding 
the mother, who, at great peril of her own life, rescued 
a child from eminent danger ? On its being remarked, 
" It was not your child," she replied, " Well, it was 
somebody's else child ! " The maternal sympathy was 
universal in this mother, and the press, ever ready to 
herald so noble a sentiment, resounded and echoed it 
almost from pole to pole. 

As the good mother may love all good children, so 
the good man or woman may love every other good 
woman or man. There is no bond wanting to exact 
such love ; but if such does exist, where the sin, where 
the wrong? Can nature, so lavish of the blessing 
of love, give it to us to cause us so much trouble to 
suppress it ? The stinting of love that has an outbreak 
in vice and licentiousness, is unworthy of so holy a 



68 free love; or, love in freedom. 

name, though it flounce in silks, or roll in gilded car* 
riages. 

They that love, purely to consummate nature's holy 
design, need not limit or bind such ; but they who love 
only to gratify lust, a perverted passion, may well ask 
bonds to hold their victim, for the pure natural tie 
does not exist. 

Says the rhymer, who probably had had some expe» 
rience in the matter : 

" The happiest life that is ever led, 
Is always to court, and never to wed." 

It is unquestionably true, though the blessing of 
maternity be denied the unwedded. The blessing of 
maternity does tiot compensate the sacrifice of freedom. 
How often I am told, " If I were not married I never 
would be ; but I must make the best of it now." 

Mankind are so inured to unhappiness, so surrounded 
by, and within the iron grasp of, these giant wrongs, 
that they have settled their minds into submission, giving 
up all hope of reprieve except through death ; though 
they grudgingly pay for a proxy prayer, " Thy will be 
done on earth as in heaven," and then go their way to 
refill their purses from their brother's earnings, or in 
pursuit of toil to earn their daily bread. 

Enlightened men unhesitatingly demand freedom in 
almost everything else but in love and maternity, where 
rather than in any other circumstances, they should be 
free. They put their necks into the yoke, and bow sub- 
missively to as cruel a despotism as ever the sun rose 
on. 

Man and woman, as pure and as loving as the nest- 
ling dove, may not join to consummate nature's holiest 
design without first bowing to this dastardly rule ; and 
others, more discordant and foul than a brood of hye- 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 69 

nas in their den, once joined may not separate, but re- 
main enslaved to increase the evil, and people the world 
with their kind. 

What wonder that the world is such a charnel-house 
since man's beginning must be in such bondage, antag- 
onism, and depravity, and his maturing life-examples a 
continuation of the same ? If there is an unpardonable 
sin, it is in the propagation of our species in discordant 
relations. 

How frequently have I asked the question, and sel- 
dom with a dissenting voice, " Were not your days 
before marriage the happiest you ever experienced ? " 
Then love was enjoyed in freedom; there were no bonds; 
and no little act of kindness or courtesy, that could ren- 
der each other more happy, was overlooked. Alike 
might be the result throughout life in freedom. 

In freedom there would be every inducement for each 
party to be always agreeable, kind, and really good, 
knowing each of them that it was dependent on such 
qualities that they have and retain such partners as 
they desire. And then, too, teach woman the laws of 
her being and those of her offspring, — let her know 
the fact that, as well as her own sins, those of the father 
of her child are visited on the babe, — and she will seek 
the purest, the noblest man for the father ; which would 
be a stimulus to induce the males to purify themselves 
by temperance in all things, and obedience to all of 
God's laws ; and woman would be alike induced to make 
herself really good, else she could not have the compan- 
ionship of the best. Such would have a tendency to 
renovate and raise the race from the thraldom of sin 
that now almost engulfs them. Soon it would be a 
great shame that a woman bear an unloving, sickly, or 
otherwise than a beautiful babe. 

To say there is no natural tie that would bind the 



70 free love; or, love in freedom. 

father to the mother of his babe, is to say that God, 
who made man a little lower than the angels only, 
made him more unloving, unkind, than the fowls of 
the air or beasts of the forest. No love-babe would 
ever go a-begging destitute of a father, and a good 
father, too ; and there would be none others than love- 
babes. It could no longer be said that man was con- 
ceived in sin. He would no longer be conceived in 
bondage without love, but in freedom, in love, in har- 
mony ; and then again would man bear the image of 
God in his soul and body, and beauty, symmetry and 
harmony, take the place of ugliness, deformity, and 
discord. 

There would be a holy atmosphere surrounding the 
relation of the sexes, and not, as now, a waste of life 
in improper sexual connection, creating a repugnance 
on conception, as is now often the case, to such a degree 
that the father forsakes the mother, and she often pro- 
cures abortion or commits infanticide. A woman con- 
ceived without sin would be above such crimes, would 
be happy within herself, and would look forward with 
extreme pleasure as well as enjoy present bliss; and a 
corresponding satisfaction would pervade the mind of 
the father. 

One fact I wish to recur to in this connection, which 
is almost proverbial for its truthfulness. Illegitimates, 
as they are called, who are born out of legal wedlock, 
are much more than an average of the race, though 
bred under the most crushing influence of public re- 
proach, and surrounded by all the other evil influences 
of those in the bonds of wedlock, even that of unin- 
tentional conception. 

I have written much to convince, if possible, my 
truth-loving friends, that freedom in the love relations 
is preferable to bonds, even in society with its present 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 71 

falses in other matters. But free love will only exist in 
name, — a farce, and not a reality, as by far too much 
which now passes as pure coin is, — if it do not change 
the circumstances, removing all the seeming hindrances 
to the realization of perfect peace, harmony, and hap- 
piness. 

Freedom is the sovereign remedy for all bondage or 
slavery, and love for all enmity and discord, and the 
two are the " refiner's fire " and " fuller's soap " that 
are to purify and cleanse all nations of earth, and make 
the whole one vast kingdom of heaven. 

The world, so to speak, are in arms, striving for 
freedom, but are thinking to obtain it without God, 
who is love. They all desire love, also ; but they think 
they must put that in bonds. The two principles, each 
harmonious with themselves, with each other, and with 
nature, they would cross with another principle, inhar- 
monious in itself and discordant with these true prin- 
ciples and with nature ; therefore they fail in obtaining 
or retaining either the blessing of love or freedom. 

The world have failed to separate and classify the 
good and evil principles, or they adopt the maxim that 
they are necessary evils. Ere the world is redeemed 
they must separate the good from the evil, and save the 
good by good, and let the evil die side by side by their 
own destructive kind. 

Some would-be wise men would feign clothe them- 
selves with the air of philosophers, and deem love a 
mark of weakness, and think it worthy only of silly wo- 
men and children ; but such have to learn that love is 
strength, is wisdom, and that they are the fools, and 
that their a, b, c, in the true philosophy of life, health, 
and happiness, they are yet to derive through the natures 
of these true philosophers. 

Freedom in love is to result in the universality of 



72 FREE LOVE; OB, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 

love, and a community of love, which is to be followed 
by a community of property, which is to be founded in 
truth, on a community of interests in each other's life 
and happiness. The ruling power must be love, or God, 
the only power which does not destroy. Evil must 
overcome itself, and God be all in all. In the kingdom 
of heaven, which is to be on this earth, true principles 
are to rule, not by any usurped or arbitrary power 
vested in any one, but by common consent. The ser- 
vant will really be the master. 

The power being in good, there can be no fear of a 
great concentration at any point, for good could only 
rule for good. Not so now that the power is in evil. 
While the power, as now, remains in the sword and 
money, both evils, the rule must be destruction and 
death. 

The candid man will not pretend to deny the fact 
that, as society now is, he with the most money has the 
greatest influence in the circle in which he moves, all 
for evil, too, it may be. And it is the shrewd man, who 
can play the most unworthy game, and evade the pub- 
lic eye, or laws, that accumulates the most, and not he 
who produces the most of that which is good for soci- 
ety as a whole. The cunning man with money, even 
in America, can buy the votes to carry measures to rob 
the voters, and give to his pockets ; or buy the slaves 
that hold the sword to enslave themselves. 

Money is the medium, the grand moving lever, of all 
man's destructive machinery. Even that which passes 
as the gospel of Jesus Christ, sad to relate, is bought 
and sold as other commodities. Human flesh and blood, 
vitalized by the same spirit which gave life and anima- 
tion to Jesus, is bartered off for gold on the auction 
block of the slave-trader. And in our more northern 
States, Jesus himself not always the very " least of 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 73 

these " is doomed to the choice of servitude or famine. 
Everything but love is bought with gold ; and even 
love, that spiritual element in which we live, is bartered 
for, bargained for, paid for, in the shining dust; but 
when the prize is grasped, it flies to sunnier climes, 
and the rude hand of avarice only lays hold on death, 
its own kind. The heavenly prize of love can only live 
enshrined with all the other heavenly virtues. 

Riches cannot rule without enslaving, which takes 
the sword to do its work, which holds out terror to the 
evil-doer, itself being and doing the greatest evil of 
them all. 

Their marriage institution and custom is the strong 
hold on the despotic power of the Old World, and the 
weak hold on life, virtue and true love. It has tried 
to sustain itself by restricting love to the " noble blood," 
as they deem it ; but the transgression have made the 
blood ignoble. Imbecility and idiocy has been the re- 
sult ; and they think to mix the noble with the noble 
of other nations, to save the power in wealth instead 
of leaving it with God, to whom it so justly belongs ; 
and what has been and is the result, we see in the wars 
daily carried on. It is a power destroying itself. 
Numbers, almost as vast as the forest trees, are dimin- 
ishing as particles of spray before the summer's sun. 
There is no power which can be sustained out of God 
or the spiritual element of love. The rule is love, and 
it is attended with all the attributes necessary to sal- 
vation. 

Though the careless observer sees other cause for 
the present Eastern war, yet the marriage relation or 
custom lies back of it, and is the real first cause. Strike 
this giant evil, and you strike the crowns, levelling 
their moneyed power, though really the wearers and 
their dependencies, as well as the whole public over 

7 



74 free love; ok, love in freedom. 

whom they tyrannize, are elevated. A similar state to 
that which prevails in the Old World is growing up in 
the New ; an aristocracy of wealth, to save to itself 
the power by enslaving the poorer classes ; and the same 
results, in the ratio that it is successful in its aims, are 
obtained. 

The power in wealth, as all our present govern- 
ments and those subject to them place it, has to rely 
on an outward force of evil to sustain itself, instead 
of an inward power of good ; and all such fall, as fall 
they must, for their foundation is on evil, which de- 
stroys itself; as Jesus expressed it, " not founded on 
the rock." 

Just in the ratio that we depart from the laws of 
God do we fail, whether the transgression be of the 
physical law of our individual being, or the law of 
freedom, love and harmony, of the body politic. The 
rise and fall of nations are but the obedience to, and 
the transgression of, the laws of God, nature, or uni- 
versal harmony. 

All governments of earth destroy (they think) to 
save ; but they only save themselves, soulless organi- 
zations, for a while. And what are governments, that 
they should be sustained on the destruction of man? 
The government of God, the only true government for 
mankind, is in that kind, and when we save them pure, 
all external forms of government, of coercion, will be 
of no avail, as in fact they now are, except to do or be 
a greater evil to overcome a less one. 

If God could change his law of love, or attraction 
and freedom, to that of enmity, coercion and bondage, 
and make half the race suitable for masters, and the 
others of such material that they could be happy with 
the whip applied to their backs, or the food taken from 
their stomachs, to induce them to raise bread for their 



FREE LOVE ; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 75 

masters, we might, after all, make quite a world of 
this, with our present notions of justice. But before 
we raise our hopes too high, by flattering ourselves 
that we will do so, had we not better call a meeting 
of delegates from all the United States and Utah, and 
petition him, and await his answer, and see if he will 
not condescend to change his natural order, and arrange 
things to please " his chosen people," in consideration 
of their great pretended devotion ? 

I am inclined to think, if he notice the petition at 
all, his answer will be, " No, gentlemen, my laws are 
unchangeable ; I have made a beautiful world, and the 
most beautiful and harmonious laws to govern it, and 
obedience to those laws will insure the most benefi- 
cent results to all my creatures. The violation of 
those laws will bring the most disastrous results to 
those violating them. I am all life, and the Creator 
of all life, and create all for happiness. All violations 
create unhappiness, therefore death to overcome. If 
you believe me, obey ; I will be with you, and it will 
be well with you. If you doubt, then go on and make 
wiser laws if you Can, only be sure that they bring 
you more happy and lasting results. Mine are made 
for all of my creatures, and when you shall learn and 
respect the happiness of all, as you wish all should 
respect yours, you will be persuaded that mine are 
the perfection of love and wisdom, and you will have 
no desire to change them in the least" 

How many of my readers, that do not have a simi- 
lar response, go to their understandings? Whether 
there be many, few, or none, who so understand, it is 
nevertheless true, and we have only to conform to these 
laws to realize what so many prayers are daily offered 
up for in vain. 

And these laws are not only written on tables of 



76 free love; or, love in freedom. 

stone, or thundered from Sinai's top, or taught on 
Olivers mount, but are written in everything that hath 
life, — in every fibre, in every muscle, in every bone, in 
every heart that beats, in every worm that creeps 
upon the earth, in every insect or bird that mounts 
upon its tiny wing, — all have the law within themselves,, 
to obey which is life, and to violate is death. This is 
the law of love, of harmony, of God. It is not an ex- 
ternal thing that we must warp ourselves to, or crucify 
our loves, affections, tastes, or passions to honor ; but 
rather the giving scope or freedom of action to alL 
There is not an appetite, a passion, or a love, that is 
natural, but is god-like, and we may gratify, and must 
gratify, else we transgress the laws of God, written in 
our own being, for which we suffer, when to sufficient 
extent, death. 

The theology that teaches the crucifixion of the flesh, 
bids us violate the laws of the Deity in man. The 
perversion of these laws, and the false habits which 
we have contracted through ignorance and bad circum- 
stances, we may wisely overcome. I say wisely ; it 
must be wisely, else we will be overcome by them. It 
is in vain that we endeavor to overcome one evil by 
another. A concentration of evil power in the hands 
of the many, administered to the few, increases the 
evil everywhere. A reverse, good for evil, can alone 
diminish it. The law of freedom inviolate, and the 
evil so deep, that it cannot be reached by the attrac- 
tion of the good, will be overcome by its own blind- 
ness, relieving the good of the necessity of involving 
themselves in a fruitless struggle, wasting their power 
and accomplishing nothing. 

All combinations, organizations, or associations, that 
do not acknowledge Love the ruler supreme, deny the 
Deity, and, of course ? their own perpetuity. There 



FREE LOVE, OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 77 

cannot be any harmonious combination of individuals, 
except through our living head, which is God. Man- 
kind must come to him and there be united, and then 
his wisdom is given them, or is in them, to perpetuate 
such union, It is there, and nowhere else, that we 
can be united in lasting ties, and yet have the greatest 
freedom, and move in the most perfect harmony. It 
is in and through this living head that man can rule 
for life ; all other rule is unto death. 

In the struggle of humanity for freedom, which has 
come with a greater degree of virtue, governments 
have been the conservatives that have stood in the 
way ; the thing that must remain inviolate, while free 
and independent thought and action have been hushed 
so far as it has been possible to do so, even when 
such thoughts have been the admitted truth of the 
many. 

Often have I defended my position with the conserv- 
ative, and met his objections one after another suc- 
cessfully, though he was thrice more capable of sus- 
taining an argument than I was, if he had had as 
truthful a position as myself. After all other argu- 
ments had failed him, and he was driven to the plat- 
form that " might makes right," then comes the argu- 
ment, " the law is against you." This it is, — the 
law, the might, the evil power that would crush what 
cannot be otherwise removed. But, my friends, the 
law that is against the right is against itself. The 
tyrant's heel is really on his own head : and they that 
are with such are against God ; and time will disclose 
whether they or God, who is the right, will prevail. 

Who that does not want life, liberty and happiness ? 
Not one of us, I presume ; then we must give to others, 
regardless of what they give us, what we desire our- 
selves. We must not think to give death and take to 



78 FREE LOVE; Oft, LOVE IN MfiEMMV 

ourselves life, give bondage and take freedom, give mis** 
ery and take happiness, or give hatred and take love 
We take that which we give. The measure we mete is 
measured to us again — love, life, liberty, happiness, or 
hatred, death, bondage and misery. There is no serv- 
ing two masters, and if we choose God as ours, we 
can give from his inexhaustible stores of good, and 
ever be increasing in his treasures. If we choose 
mammon, we can give nothing good, but ever take, 
and still remain unsatisfied. 

I have said the good and evil should be separated. 
The good should take no part in any evil, but do good 
alone, and leave the evil free to visit their own penal- 
ties on themselves. When those who are good, or 
would have others think they are so, will come out 
and separate themselves from all evil-doing, the old 
world and her institutions will roll together as a scroll,, 
and none will ever wish them unrolled again ; though 
some have an absurdity, which they call philosophy,, 
that there could be no good enjoyed without an evil 
to taste in contrast. Such was the old African's rea- 
soning, who pounded his fingers that they might feel 
better when they were done aching. 

It need not be argued that freedom in love is to 
break asunder all the ties that bind families together. 
It is to enlarge the circle of love, and unite all in more 
lasting ties, that shall be pleasant rather than grievous 
to be borne. If a gulf really exist between those 
who are bound by civil law, let such separate, and not 
hold them over a flame that is consuming them. Let 
them be healed by freedom, that they may be united 
in love, a bond that shall not destroy. 

Jesus said, •' I came not to bring peace but a sword," 
to array father against mother, &c. ; but such is not 
the final result, but only the transition state from the 



FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IK FREEDOM. 79 

present disorganization and tumult to that of peace 
and happiness. The earth is noiv being drenched in 
blood, and where out-broken war is not, man is en- 
gaged in almost unceasing strife ; and everywhere are 
the smouldering fires of envy, jealousy, fear and want, 
no less sure in their final results than the deadly con- 
flict with the bloody steel. Freedom, as I have said, is 
to overcome this ; but if perpetual separation of the 
jealous, envious and antagonistic, be the result of free- 
dom, such would be preferable to any union that re- 
quired any external force, or even public opinion to 
sustain, no matter whether the union be of nations, 
states, or individuals. 

In the marriage relations, when there are large 
families of children who must be separated, and, if 
need be, scattered from pole to pole, it is preferable 
to other bonds than love. The sad influence of an 
unloving pair on the rising generation can only be 
equalled in a man-of-war, or a similar situation, where 
the despotic rule reigns supreme. 

Society would be the gainers, pecuniarily, to let all 
separate who wish, and if need be, provide at public 
expense for all such as were thrown on the charities 
of the world, and the improvement of the morals 
would be incalculable. It costs more, oftentimes, to 
convict one criminal than to educate many children 
properly, yet the education is too often disregarded, 
and the real cause of crime allowed to pass unnoticed 
until the crime assume a desperate form, and then 
they think to cut it short by a greater one, leaving 
an evil impression that can be effaced by time alone, 
and a reverse of circumstances and policy. 

I am told that such a state of society as I antici- 
pate would be the realization of the millennium, and 
would be desirable, if the world was ready for it ; but 



80 FREE LOVE; OR, LOVE IN FREEDOM, 

that mankind are too corrupt, and that the good would 
be overpowered by the evil and lost, if they undertook 
to sustain themselves without an external government, or 
evil, free to protect them ; — ** that the tiger is loose, and 
he mast be caged and tamed, ere we can be secure with 
freedom. Such is the blindness of the world, that they 
look afar off for the destroyer when it is within them- 
selves. If these objectors will subdue the tiger within 
themselves, they will feel a security in themselves ; and, 
though they have every other enemy in the universe 
secured, if they have not control of their own passions 
they are still insecure. If there be no internal foe, 
there can no harm come from an external one. The 
security for the good is in the good — in being good* 
The destruction of the evil is in the evil — -in being evih 

The world is as ready for the good as ever it can 
be, without the good making it better by their good- 
ness. If we send one tiger to chain another, then the 
greater tiger is left unchained ; and after we have done 
all we can do in this way, there is still left the biggest 
of them all to be conquered. 

Said a lady, from whose letter I have made a quota- 
tion, " I can see but one course that promises a radical 
cure for the whole. Let those who are ready for the 
sacrifice step boldly out from the marriage ranks, and 
face the whole enemy in the open field. The sight of 
these, though few they are, will strengthen and encour- 
age those who are faltering, and soon they will join us. 
Our numbers thus augmented will encourage still oth- 
ers, who will grow strong at the sight of numbers, and 
thus on, and on, until the field is won." 

In a recent correspondence with a lady, who was not 
ready for the sacrifice of a present reputation, but 
chose rather to submit to the marriage bonds, I wrote 
thus: "Does it ever cross your thoughts that your 



FREE LOVE; OK, LOVE IN FREEDOM. 81 

loved one desires the company of another? Do not check 
the desire, but rather anticipate it for him, and send 
him away with a merry, loving smile, and go about 
your business, not with a sad, jealous, lonely heart, as 
though your all was gone, but with a light, joyous one, 
as though he had gone to bring you greater riches ; and 
be assured as your faith is so will it be unto you. One 
that loves with such ennobling love, has more power 
to keep the good than all the bonds the world ever 
dreamed of." 

The lady's advice would reach one class who are 
strong and ready for the greatest sacrifice or penalties 
of society, while mine would reach those of less strength. 
Everything we can do to enlarge the circle of love and 
friendship should be done. 

Need I here add that these principles correspond 
with those taught by Jesus Christ, and that they are 
purely the teachings of nature, and the foundation of 
a true state of society, that shall raise mankind from 
the depths of sin into which they have fallen, and ele- 
vate them to a sphere so beautiful that they will look 
back on the present only with surprise that they so 
long suffered in it, and with thankfulness that they 
have escaped? The far-seeing, truthful reader has al- 
ready come to that conclusion, and with all his heart 
bids them Grod-speed. But they who are so blinded by 
their sins, and the traditions of their fathers, that they 
see not these truths, or, seeing, understand them not, or 
understand them, yet unable from the surrounding cir- 
cumstances to advocate or respect them, must do as 
they must, while I do as I must. But I beg they, for 
their own sakes, will make use of no violence to sup- 
press these truths, which are impregnable. 

If they are not truths, it can be shown so, and they 
will hide their heads for shame ; but if they are true, 



82 free love; or, love in freedom. 

violence to those who live them cannot suppress them. 
It will only bring ignominy on the persecutors, while the 
persecuted and their cause will shine with a more radi- 
ant light. Then I say to unbelievers, hold your peace, 
else show to the world that the two principles, each so 
desirable of themselves, — freedom which you fight for, 
and love which you pray for, — are unworthy of you 
when obtained. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF GOVERNMENTS. 

As the preceding chapter, particularly treating on 
the subject of free love, involved that of government, 
so the present, on government, must necessarily involve 
that of free love. And were I to treat on any subject 
touching the welfare of the race, it would, more or 
less, involve all other subjects; for all truths are more 
or less connected, and harmonize with all other truths. 
In fact, all truth is one great whole ; therefore the 
present chapter is only a continuation of the preceding. 

The whole story of the true government might be 
summed up in two words, love and freedom. The only 
true union of the race is in love, which alone can pro- 
tect to us our freedom. Yet on this truth, so simple, 
so easily told in so few words, the world wants line 
upon line, and precept upon precept, ere they can be 
made to understand what to me is as simple as the 
law of gravitation. There is a mountain-like mass of 
rubbish to be removed ; hence the necessity of so many 
words. 

Be it known, I have no personal feeling of enmity 
or disrespect toward any one, to be gratified. It is not 
persons, but principles, that I would war against ; and 
my warfare, I trust, shall be as mighty as truth, that 
knows no defeat, and as peaceful as mighty. Every- 
where that I meet a human being, I meet a brother or 
sister. But, alas ! in those I find principles as unwor- 
thy of humanity as the swine is unworthy of human 



84 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

society. It is to overcome those principles that I write, 
and to raise the race to its true dignity, that they may 
harmonize with each other and with all nature, thereby 
making the world one vast government or kingdom 
worthy to be called the kingdom of heaven, whose rule 
shall not be the sword, but love, or God. 

In speaking of governments in general, I mean the 
external force or authority which one or many individ- 
uals exercise over the few or many. In history we have 
record of almost every imaginable variety, and now in 
being there are very many, each differing from the 
other, and each claiming for itself the superiority. I 
am inclined to class them together, and think ill of 
them all, though very good people, comparatively, deem 
them indispensable. The members of each usually al- 
most deify their own, though they find cause to condemn 
every other one. 

If we review the past, we find them invariably the 
conservatives that have stood in the way to retard pro- 
gression in every worthy reform ; and the good they 
would do they think to do with evil, therefore at best 
can only substitute one evil for another — sometimes a 
less and sometimes a greater. The fact that the base, 
of all governments is evil precludes the possibility 
of their doing good to any connected with them. They 
are all founded on the sword. They begin with blood- 
shed, and have a being only by enslaving, in a greater 
or less degree, those over whom they exercise their 
authority; which degree of bondage depends upon the 
power vested in government, which again depends upon 
the intelligence of the people, — the least intelligence 
in the governor and governed exercising and submitting 
to the greatest authority or injustice. Some are such 
despots and slaves, that the husbandman may be taken 
from his fields, and the mechanic from his shop, and 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 85 

the wives and little ones left in isolation and want, while 
they are sent away to be shot at, and shoot others, like 
themselves enslaved, each party fighting the battles of 
their oppressors, winning nothing for any one, but 
destroying for every one, whichever may be the victor. 

I will pass those of antiquity, including the one 
which enacted the scene of the crucifixion on Him 
whom the so-styled Christian world denominate their 
Saviour, and come to our own, which is claimed to be 
the best in the world, — whose every city and village 
of note is adorned with temples for the public worship 
of Jesus, who suffered death in defence of obedience 
to the laws of God, rather than the governments of 
the sword, which were established in the blindness and 
corruption of men, for destroying- to save. 

Some eighty years since we find our fathers in gen- 
eral assembly wise enough to know, and bold enough 
to declare, that the inalienable rights of man were 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And they 
had the fortitude to pledge their all, even their lives, 
for the attainment of those rights ; to accomplish which, 
by weakening or destroying the government which 
oppressed them, they formed themselves into another 
government, bound themselves by oaths and penalties, 
took their swords, muskets, and knapsacks, and pursued 
the deadly conflict seven long years, through the most 
excessive hardships, and almost rivers of human blood, 
and came off with " honors of war," and victors over 
the mother government. 

So far as the foreign foe was concerned, they were 
free, their independence recognized, and they were at 
liberty, individually or collectively, under God and the 
right, to give to every one even more than their dec- 
laration avowed was every one's right. I say " more," 
for the words ''pursuit of" might have been stricken 



8b OF GOVERNMENTS. 

out, making happiness the right of the race, instead 
of but a pursuit after it. But after such a decla- 
ration, and the achievement of such a victory over 
the government that oppressed them, what have these 
reformers done, in their governmental or collective ca- 
pacity, in their new bonds of oaths and swords, to en- 
force them ? What is the result, at this day, after a 
lapse of almost a century, of nature's progression? 
Long since has the mother country washed herself from 
the foul stain of chattel slavery, yet these progressives 
and their descendants hold more than three millions of 
human beings in chains of servitude, obliging them to 
submit to task-masters whom the government furnish 
with power to enslave. And that power is furnished, 
not only by those who recognize chattel slavery as a 
just institution, but from those who abhor it, and would, 
but for the government, wash their hands clean from 
the foul sin. 

Citizens of the so-called free states, though they be 
Christian men, are called upon to assist to catch and 
carry back into captivity those who endeavor to escape 
from bondage, and realize to themselves the declara- 
tion of our fathers, which is in the heart and on the , 
lips of every American freeman. And, more than this, 
the honest toil of the husbandman is robbed to defray 
the villanous charges. 

The public journals tell us that more than forty 
thousand dollars, the product of more than a hundred 
years' labor of a New England farmer, was spent by 
government to capture on New England soil one that 
would be a free man, and send him back to his chains. 
And now, while I write, there is an American minister 
under bonds to appear before the tribunals of govern- 
ment, to answer to a charge of sedition for proclaiming 
against such laws and authorities. Even the " Cradle 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 87 

of Liberty " hath not security for one who preaches 
freedom to the captive. Hush the fact, lest the despots 
of the Old World boast of giving their people a more 
just and merciful rule than the republics of the new ! 

The slavery of the African race and their descend- 
ants, and the mixed race, is by no means all, though 
the most prominent feature of wrong suffered and tol- 
erated by the people from the government. The land 
on which our very existence depends is monopolized by 
government, and every child born must directly or in- 
directly become a slave, or submit to servitude, to re- 
deem from its mammon grasp the soil on which to 
raise its bread, or lay its head. Nor does the wrong 
end here, nor will it ever end, so long as governmental 
laws are regarded paramount to the constitutional laws 
of man and his individual rights, or so long as govern- 
ments render evil for evil, even under the pretence of 
self-preservation. The whole fabric or structure of gov- 
ernments must be changed ere the people will realize 
what they in their prayers ask for, or what their pure 
hearts desire. 

What can be said, that is worthy of humanity or 
Christianity, of a government that withholds the soil 
from the honest husbandman, or doles it out to him for 
gold, and sells it to sharpers to hold on speculation, 
while her honest sons of toil are suffering for the want 
of bread which it would yield them for their labor ? 

Though the right to govern be admitted to be in the 
governed, one half the race — the female sex — are 
as a blank, mere ciphers with the government. But 
if one rise above the nothingness with which the laws 
regard her, wrestling with poverty and the abuses 
which crush her beneath the other sex, until she redeem 
from government and its oppressions a home of her 
own, which she ought to enjoy unmolested, then comes 



88 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

in this vampire with its demand for tribute, perhaps 
to be expended in aggressive war, but surely in some 
way she may have no voice in, if she wished. 

If woman were granted her right to suffrage, how 
long, think you, my reader, before governmental mur- 
der would cease to be popular ? Where is the mother, 
sister, or daughter that would send a son, brother, or 
father, to meet a foreign foe in deadly conflict ? And 
from where could come a foe so demon-like as to harm 
the inoffensive husbandman, wife, and little ones, who 
would not retaliate, but rather feed the enemy if he 
hungered, clothe him if naked, and give him drink if 
thirsty ? How have the Christian world forgotten this 
Christian method of overcoming enemies ? 

Woman's right to maternity is also denied her by 
government, except through its instrumentality, and a 
swearing to a life-long servility of love, forsaking all 
others, however pure and holy. This oppressive mon- 
ster, which would almost assume the cloak of divin- 
ity, would brand the woman with infamy, and im- 
prison her and the father of her babe, if her godlike 
nature overcame the fear of public reproach, and cause 
her to obey the law of Grod written in her being, with- , 
out first bowing to its degrading mandates of evil. And 
after she had toiled year after year, amid these oppres- 
sions, to feed, clothe, and educate, and raise a darling 
son to manhood, who would minister to her wants in 
her declining life, still she may be robbed of him. He, 
her only stay in her old age, may be coerced to spill 
his blood in defence of a government that made his 
existence a crime, and branded his parents as crimi- 
nals, because they did not falsify the God within their 
own bosoms, and bow to this Moloch of oppression and 
destruction. 

Say the people, " The State must be protected. If 



0£ GOVERNMENTS. 89 

Women were free we should be overrun with vagrants 
and paupers." The state is protected, woman and her 
race is enslaved, and the very earth is cursed by the 
misrule, and we are a race of vagrants and paupers ; 
yet none greater than those of the state, one of which 
will outvie a score of the common in vagrancy or 
public charge. 

What is the State ? What is Government, — who is 
it, — where the sustaining power to so formidable an 
enemy to humanity ? This is an important question, de- 
serving a truthful answer ; and we have it, without my 
taking the responsibility to answer it. Out of their 
own mouths are they condemned. 

" The Family Christian Almanac," as it styles 
itself, for the present year 1855, which tells us it is 
published by the " American Tract Society, embracing 
members from fourteen evangelical denominations, united 
to diffuse the knowledge of Christ and him crucified." 
(" Must it not be him crucified afresh ? ")■ This Alma- 
nac says, " No one thing exerts such a mighty influence 
in keeping this mighty republic from falling to pieces 
as the Bible and its ministers." 

It is unquestionably true that the American church 
is the strong bulwark of the American Union, as the 
Union is the bulwark of American slavery. Though 
the church and state are said to be separated, neither 
can be sustained without the other ; for they are vir- 
tually one, and humanity lies crushed and bleeding 
under them both. 

Then is there no hope for humanity and true Chris- 
tianity while these " mighty" potent powers combine to 
perpetuate their aggressive system ? Yes, there may 
be hope ; to me the way is plain ; it is to come out and 
separate from these institutions, whose base is on 
the sand ; and unite in love and harmony, according 
8* 



90 OF GOVERNMENTS, 

to the pure laws of affinity, and save ourselves, whil$ 
they do their own work of destruction. The seeds of 
their own dissolution are sown with themselves, and if 
it cannot be seen and felt in the prostitution to sor- 
did gain, and the strife of political parties, and the 
discord of the several sects, as well as the want of love 
and harmony with the members of the same denomi- 
nation, then we may reckon, at no very distant day, 
on tracing their demise with a flow of blood. You, 
who would avoid such a catastrophe, come out and 
separate yourselves from the external force of evil, 
that rules with its destructive rod, and rely on the 
internal loves of your natures, which alone can give 
you life, liberty, harmony and happiness. You have 
nothing to hope from the one course, and nothing to 
fear from the other. Do as your reason bids, and as 
your pure love incites, independent of any external 
force of reproach or evil rule, and the tears and sor- 
rows of the past and present shall be succeeded by 
smiles and joy in the future. 

Need I multiply evidence of the folly of these insti- 
tutions, that must supplant the law of God written in 
man and woman, that their follies may continue? 
Such evidence could be forthcoming to any extent out 
of their own mouths. 

This same Almanac, the organ of fourteen principal 
evangelical denominations, tells us that this republic, 
which the Bible and its ministers do so much to sus- 
tain, expended more than twenty millions of dollars 
on its army and navy in the year ending June 30, 1853. 
It also gives further important information. It says : 
" Some people talk about ministers, and the cost of 
supporting them, paying their house-rent, table ex- 
penses, and other items of salary," and then adds, 
" Did such people ever think it costs thirty-five mil- 



Ofl GOVERNMENTS. 91 

lions of dollars to support American lawyers, and 
that twelve millions are paid out annually to keep our 
criminals, while only six millions are spent annually to 
sustain ministers in the United States ? " It also informs 
us that the balance of the federal government's ex- 
penses, besides the army and navy, is over thirty 
millions ; making over one hundred millions expendi- 
ture (this not including the state governments), the 
most of which is for making, expounding, and en- 
forcing its laws, and keeping its criminals. It further 
tells us that the population is less than twenty-six 
millions, having thirty-six thousand places of public 
worship, valued at over eighty-six millions of dollars, 
and accommodating over thirteen millions of people, 
or more than half the entire population. It gives 
another little bit of curious, valuable and appropriate 
information. It is headed " The Army, and what leads 
men to it." It says, " A surgeon of the United States 
army recently desired to know the most common cause 
of enlistments. By permission of the captain of a 
company containing forty-five, giving a pledge never 
to disclose the name of any officer or private, the true 
history was obtained of every man. On investiga- 
tion, it appeared that nine tenths enlisted on account 
of female difficulties ; thirteen had changed their 
names, and forty-three were either drunk, or partially 
so, at the time of their enlistment. Most of them 
were men of considerable talent and learning, and 
about one third had once been in elevated stations in 
life. Four had been lawyers, three doctors, and two 
ministers." 

Now I ask the candid (for such alone I wish to 
deal with), what do all these and other facts mean 
when put together ? Here is a republic declaring the 
inalienable rights of man to be life, liberty, and the 



92 of governments. 

pursuit of happiness, yet holding more than three 
millions of human beings in the bonds of slavery, giv- 
ing them death, rather than allow them to pursue 
" happiness " in " freedom." They claim to be Chris- 
tian men, peace men, yet expend from seven to twen- 
ty millions annually to sustain army and navy forces ; 
— to be wise men, yet require an outlay of toward thirty 
millions to make laws, and thirty-five millions to ex- 
pound them ; — a virtuous, upright people, though re- 
quiring twelve millions to support criminals ; — a min- 
istry that teaches Christianity (" without money or 
price "), complaining that only six millions are set 
aside annually for their support, a Bible of Divine 
inspiration, both exerting such a " mighty influence ; " 
worshippers that embrace (reckoning from the capacity 
of the houses of worship) more than half the entire 
population; showing, conclusively, that all this power 
of evil it is in the hands of these worshippers to remove 
by ballot, if they were wise enough, and the ballot 
was the proper lever by which to do the work. And 
the ministry gives us the fact, that nine tenths of the 
enlistments in the army are consequent on female diffi- 
culty, and that nineteen twentieths were drunk on en- 
listing. Is there a defect in nature that makes so 
many female difficulties, or is it an arbitrary law dis- 
regarding nature, that is the cause ? Is the law an 
honorable one that will suffer recruiting officers to en- 
list intoxicated men, and hold them, contrary to their 
sober moments' wishes ? Can such powers be ordained 
of God ? Can the Bible and its ministers be the star 
that is to guide the weary traveller to that haven of 
rest, the kingdom of heaven? Is it obedience to the 
laws of God, of love and harmony, that causes all this 
strife in religious sects and political parties ? 

Said Jesus, u By this shall ye know that they are 



OP GOVERNMENTS. 93 

my disciples, that they have love one for another." 
Where is that love which is to supersede these powers 
of darkness and death — that is to overcome this lust 
for gold and its power to enslave ? O, where is that 
which is of God, without which there is no restoration, 
and with which the human family are to be united in 
one common brotherhood, realizing to the world the 
ideal of the good and true ? I ask where ? Does the 
echo only answer where? I answer, it is within your 
own bosoms ; live truthfully to the laws of your own 
pure natures, and ye will be redeemed. But to return 
to government. 

Are not all these inconsistencies, this blindness, this 
disease, these wars, this strife for money, political and 
military power, consequent on the transgression of 
God's natural law of love and freedom ? Is not this 
whole system, — the parts of which are bolstered up 
by each other, — the church and state, an emanation 
from the same source ? Cannot the careful observer 
see the connection between the marriage law, which 
binds unloving ones together, and separates those who 
do love purely, and the female difficulties, and the 
intemperance of the nineteen twentieths, and the re- 
cruiting officer who catches his victim when intoxi- 
cated, and the laws that are enforced by these soldiers, 
and the ministry and the Bible that exert such a 
11 mighty influence " to hold the republic from falling 
to pieces? Who can truthfully answer me that the 
whole is not one system of wrong, incomplete when 
any branch is taken off, and that the whole must give 
way before the mild influences of truth and love, or be 
swept from the face of the earth by the destructiveness 
of its own elements? 

Do not charge me with vindictiveness toward any 
man or class of men, because I thus speak of these 



94 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

institutions. I have no such feeling to gratify. I 
pity, and teach the laws only which will save. I 
make none of these facts, nor exaggerate them. They 
are true in history, and most of those which I have 
quoted the ministry have chronicled, while I only 
analyze and compile them. The ministry coupled itself 
and the Bible with the government ; therefore with her 
wrongs. The spire is pointed to us as a mark of per- 
manency of American institutions. Even the slavery 
of the state, which fails to find a sustaining power 
in humanity, falls back on the Bible and the church 
as its only hope. In fact, the church and state, though 
said to be separated, are virtually united in a majority 
of the members of each. One who takes a part in 
state affairs, he at the same time being a member of 
the church, virtually unites the church and state in 
himself. 

The clergy, though they may hold themselves above 
petty political strife very often, and I do not know 
but generally, hold themselves eligible to public offices 
in the States and United States governments. In the 
Massachusetts Legislature the present year, the public 
journals tell us, are twenty-four clergymen, consisting 
of Universalist, Unitarian, Episcopal, Baptist, Con- 
gregational and Methodist; each, of course, pledging 
himself by oath to sustain the laws of the compact of 
the states, though that compact recognize slavery as 
one of its " peculiar institutions," which mast be sus- 
tained, if need be, at the point of the bayonet, or by 
the deadly aim of the nation's musketry. Though the 
governments of earth do not any of them scruple at 
war-making, yet many of them usurp the sacred name 
of Christian, and if offence be offered, do deluge the 
world with blood rather than forgive an erring brother. 
If such be really Christianity, then we want some- 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 95 

thing else to redeem the world from its sin and suffer- 
ing. It is useless to deny the fact, however much the 
American church may claim of Christianity as its reli- 
gion, that the popular church religion is a military reli- 
gion. It is useless to undertake to disunite the popular 
church and religion of a nation from its popular state 
or government. If the two are popular with the 
people, they are as one. The religious sentiment is 
parent of the political and judicial ; and if the reli- 
gion be Christian, the government must also be Chris- 
tian ; and if the government be Christian, then, as I 
have said, away with Christianity, and give us a reli- 
gion of humanity, to redeem the world from its martial 
rule. 

I would no sooner speak ill of these institutions than 
of individual persons, were it necessary for the well- 
being of the race ; but I should be recreant to hu- 
manity, knowing, as I do, their iniquity, were I to 
hold my peace, though the utterance of these truths 
loaded me with chains, or, as it has done, sent me again 
to the confines of the prison walls. It would be much 
more pleasant for me to say good only of them, but I 
must tell the truth, and I have scanned them well, and 
find no good there, but rather evil from beginning to 
end, from centre to circumference. I well know, too, 
they are idols held dear as life, and am pained when 
I realize they can give nothing but death. I as well 
know, too, that they must pass away, and would that 
they might pass, by such truths as I have, rather than 
by their own violence ! I would save the mothers and 
daughters, the sisters, the fathers, sons and brothers, 
from the scene of sorrow that is being realized in the 
Old World to sustain misrule. I would teach obedience 
to the laws of God, which alone can save and redeem 
the world, from its strife and death, to quiet and life. 



96 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

One need only to witness the scalping of one party 
by the other, and the bleeding of the whole community 
by either party, to convince them of the iniquity un- 
derlying both, and the whole system. 

From a political paper that came to my hand re- 
cently, I gathered the following headings of articles 
from one of its pages. I did not take the trouble to 
read either, for I concluded from the sense and spirit 
of the introduction, there was no food there for me. 
The headings were these, — which utterly condemns 
the party or parties at which they are aimed as well 
as those who threw the missiles : " Restoration of 
the Old Blood-sucker Politicians; " " Misquoting equal 
to Lying;" " The Journal chaffering about the sale 
of fourteen hundred Reed Whigs ; " " One of the 
Hessians ; " " Who will be Governor ?" "Another Rich- 
mond in the Field," &c. In another paper I find the 
following introduction to an article from a correspond- 
ent : 

u Matters at the Capital. Morrill Dynasty ; The 
Renegade ; Great Republican Party ; John L. Stevens ; 
Priest and Levite; Order of Sanctity; Morrill's De- 
signs on the Baptist Denomination ; A Seat in his 
Council declined; A Gambling Parson ; Formation of 
a Fusion Party ; Whig Papers ; Loco-foco Incantation ; 
Growls and Chuckles ; The Locos ' roused up ' ; Proof 
of their Origin ; Division of the Offices ; Land Office ; 
Penny Whistle; Baskehegan Giant; The Oxford Bear ; 
Adjutant-General; Lion's Share; Whig Jackalls ; The 
Penobscot Skrimage; Dogs are dangerous ; Chadwick's 
Lineage and Democracy doubted ; He shows his Scars ; 
Register of Probates ; The Guillotine." 

Such needs no comments from me. Itself tell of its 
own baseness, and of the spirit that is infused through- 
out the political atmosphere of our state, and proba- 



OP GOVERNMENTS. 97 

foly throughout other states, and worse in many, and 
in our general government, and such is the spirit in 
which the rising generation is nurtured. And a simi- 
lar antagonism pervades the religious world. A most 
deadly feud exists between the different denominations, 
which is often instilled into innocent little children, 
before they know any real difference in the religious 
tenets of their parents, if there be really any differ- 
ence, of which I am doubtful, since they all lead to 
corresponding practice. 

Political and religious governments both go back to 
the past for authority for their being and doing ; 
neither dare take the present attainments in science 
and truth for a standard. They dare not either of 
them look boldly in the face the light of the present 
age, but rely on their superiority of numbers and 
physical power and ability to keep the light of truth 
from shining, for their being. But neither have aught 
to fear from investigation, or aught to hope by sup- 
pressing it. Everything good must stand, and every- 
thing false must yield. They are all to be tried so as 
by fire. Good is omnipotent, and will, as pure gold, 
suffer no loss ; while evil hath the seeds of death sown 
within itself, though it be only looking afar off for a 
destroyer. 

I am told that our United States governments are 
unlike others — that they are in the people, who 
change them as they please, or progress. There is a 
shadow of truth in the assertion, though a substance 
of falsehood, so far as the whole people are concerned. 
So may it be said of Napoleon's government. It is in 
him and his soldiers. But is there not something 
higher in the bosoms of more Frenchmen than really 
compose Napoleon's government than his system of 
aggressive war ? And is there not something higher 
■9 



U5 OF GOVERNMENTS', 

for a true American freeman, a Christian man, than to 
be an American slave-catcher, because the majority of 
this filibustering nation approve of slavery and slave- 
hunting ? 

It is undeniable that the true government is in the 
people individually or collectively, under God, or love, 
in which individual or collective capacity there can be 
change, as there is change in individuals. But in the 
collective capacity of present governments who extend 
their arms indiscriminately over the people by geo- 
graphical lines, the blessing of progression may never 
be fully realized ; but extreme persecution be suffered 
by the reformer, as ever has been done, from the dor- 
mant mass that tarries behind. 

The government, as is ours, even if it be in the ma- 
jority of the people, may be as corrupt and unworthy 
of a true man, as though it were in a prince or empe- 
ror, and the minority may be required to submit to a 
rule whose very breath or touch may pollute. By our 
Federal Union every northern man who takes a part in 
government becomes accessory to southern slavery. 
And the slave majority may add territory to territory „ 
on her southern borders, ever increasing the power of 
slavery until it shall break the little attainments in 
human freedom that have been achieved, and spread this 
scourge to humanity throughout the land, only finding 
a respite from such bondage through the destructiveness 
of its own corruption in civil wars. Nature has re- 
served in store this remedy for foul, deep-laid disease. 

Gov. Morrill of our own state, and Gov. Gardner 
of Massachusetts, in their annual messages allude to the 
aggressive power of slavery, notwithstanding the author- 
ity of the constitution in the hands of the majority. And 
it would matter but little about a constitution if the 
majority are to rule, right or wrong, and that majority 



OF GOVERNMENTS, 99 

reste with the slave interests and slave power. In such 
a case the constitution, as well as the declaration of 
rights which our fathers published to the world, is as 
sounding brass, devoid of meaning. One must be blind 
not to see the influence which is exerted by the slave 
interests of the south, and the moneyed interests of the 
north, both as one, to crush human freedom. It is the 
same spirit, principle and interest, that formerly drovo 
the Quakers to seek a home in the New World, and 
whipped tbem when here, and oppressed our fathers 
with taxes until it caused them to rebeL It is now the 
same which holds the black man in his chains, and 
comes north to capture him in his flight, and summons 
Theodore Parker to appear before the courts charged 
with sedition toward government, and throws me into 
prison for living my individual life of freedom. The 
slave seeks his God-given right to freedom. Mr* 
Parker utters the truth from the public desk, and I 
would live my own individual life. The slave, Mr. 
Parker, or myself, have neither of us raised a finger to 
infringe on the life, liberty or happiness of any other 
creature, other than the life, liberty, or happiness of 
others depended on our bondage. 

Though the declaration of our fathers is that all men 
are free, and the constitution declares that no man's 
religion shall be questioned, and that every man's home 
shall be sacred from intrusion, yet the black man is 
held in his bondage, Mr. Parker is held to bail for 
preaching or teaching a religion of humanity, and I am 
locked in prison, not for harming any one, but for liv- 
ing in my own should-be sacred home, according to the 
dictates of my own conscience. Neither of us has 
transgressed a law of God or nature, nor have either 
of us overstepped the declaration of the rights of our 
fathers, or the Constitution of the United States, or 



100 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

of the so-called free States. But all of us are Laving 
imposed on us, the government — it is said to be — 
of the majority of the people, which is corrupt in con- 
sequence of the transgression of the natural laws. 

Now, I do not object to the majority ruling them- 
selves as wisely or as foolishly as they are wise or fool- 
ish ; but I do protest, and as conscientiously, too, as 
did our fathers against the rule of King George and 
his court, that any majority, or minority, exercise their 
laws over me, when I infringe not on the rights of 
other individual beings. If liberty means anything- 
desirable, it means individual liberty to think, speak,, 
and act, independent of the thought, speech, or action 
of any body of men, as well as independent of a pope, 
or king. And this freedom must be granted to every 
individual being ere we are a nation of freemen, as 
we claim to be. The government that cannot extend 
such freedom to each individual is unworthy of its ex- 
istence, and will eventually destroy itself. And thrice 
unworthy is a government that commits a wrong on one 
individual for a like transgression against another 
individual ; and more unworthy still is that government 
which punishes for a transgression of its laws when no 
individual rights have been trespassed against. 

Though we are members of one body, and no good 
or harm can come to one, without more or less affecting 
the whole, yet each has an individual life or existence 
which may be unlike any other individual's ; therefore 
no other man, or number of men, can write a constitu- 
tion or laws, with a surety that it meets the wants of 
any other being. 

It is argued that the good of the whole requires the 
sacrifice of individual freedom or rights. But it is a 
false position. The government is false that requires 
the sacrifice of any natural individual right for its owe& 



oe Governments. 101 

being or welfare. The right of individual beings must 
remain inviolate, else the good of the whole cannot be 
promoted, inasmuch as the whole is made up of these 
separate individuals. 

Because I claim for each their natural individual 
rights to individual freedom of thought, word, or deed, 
I do not claim the right for any to do a wrong, even to 
themselves. But if they will do so, I ask the good 
not themselves to transgress the laws of freedom, but 
leave the transgressor free to overcome himself with 
his wrongs, rather than involve the good in a vain en- 
deavor to overcome such wrong, as all communities do 
who enact penal laws for the transgressor. 

When the people shall learn what is true, — that 
jrrong is no less so when committed by the whole under 
the guise of government or law, than when perpetrated 
by individuals on other individuals, and that the tend- 
ency to evil is more certain, — they will have learned 
a truth of great worth to them. It is certain, when 
the good would restrain the evil, except by goodness, 
that they become like them, evil in some degree ; and 
when they carry the restraint to murder for murder, 
the whole community approving of such become mur- 
derers to overcome murder, which is as absurd as to 
pluck the second eye to give sight to one already blind. 
It is a well-known fact in history that the rigor of gov- 
ernments is productive of crime. It cannot be other- 
wise if like begets like. Then, would governments make 
the people mild, kind, and forbearing toward each 
other, let them be likewise toward the people. 

Government can only be good when it is a concen- 
tration of individual good to do good to those who of- 
fend other individuals. Such a government might well 
encompass the earth, and such alone as a government 
can do aught to redeem humanity from her depths of 
9* 



102 OF GOVERNMENT 

sin. Government can be only evil when it is a conceit 
tration of evil to do evil to those who transgress its 
laws, or trespass on the rights of other individuals. 

Such are all governments at the present day, though 
it be the nineteenth century of an era which is called 
Christian, in honor of one who taught the true philos* 
ophy of government. How shamefully inconsistent 
with each other are the precept and practice of the pro- 
fessed Christian world ! 

If people wish to save their governments and the 
governments of the people, they must reduce to prac- 
tice the precept of Jesus, and found their laws on the 
constitutional laws of man, and let them join by affin- 
ities rather than by geographical lines. The security 
of any government or people does not depend upon 
any outward force of evil, but rather their insecurity 
upon any demand for such force. 

It is said the. love of money is the root of all evil, 
and there is a shade of truth in the saying, and it is in 
and through government that such love is fostered and 
cherished more than anywhere else in society. Man 
cannot begin in the world without first paying to gov- 
ernments money for the soil on which to raise his bread. 
He must first sell himself in slavery to some one or 
thing to earn money to redeem that which is as natur- 
ally and rightfully his as the air he breathes. And, 
then, it matters not how conscientious he may be of 
sustaining military power, he must submit to a tax of 
money, directly or indirectly, which pays for one of 
God's creatures butchering another. 

It is governments that hold to themselves the right 
to coin money, from the petty prince who imprints his 
image there, to the United States which has some other 
device to make it appear attractive. Money has power 
proportionate to man's depravity, ignorance, and ine- 



Of GOVERNMENTS. 10S 

quality. Give enlightened men their natural heritage, 
and they are above the use of money ; but rob them 
of their rights, making a part serfs and slaves, and 
they must stoop to whatever power holds those rights, 
whether it be government who holds the soil, or the 
southern man, who, through government, holds the 
man himself, making him a thing to be bought and 
sold as other things. It is only through government 
that the slave is held in his chains, and through the 
same medium that the northern laborer is held in serv- 
itude, and through the ignorance of the whole that 
both systems are perpetuated. The governor and the 
governed, the enslaver and the enslaved, are both 
cursed in their unnatural condition. Money has no 
power with a free, enlightened people. It is really of 
no worth with such. The best it can do is to purchase 
the servitude of some who are ignorant, or slaves. If 
each in a community possessed an equal sum of an 
hundred thousand dollars, it would be of no more 
worth than a dime each. So much of human labor is 
to be performed to build our houses, manufacture our 
clothing, and raise our bread. But if there be another 
class destitute of natural supplies, through the monop- 
oly of the moneyed power, then the gold will command 
their services, and force the destitute to do the labor 
of the opulent as well as their own, thereby cursing 
one portion with an excess, while it relieves another 
of that which would really be beneficial. The real 
wealth of a nation or people is not in the resources of 
their mines, but in the bone, muscle, and intellect, of 
the people, which must harmonize. With all the 
apparent wealth of our densely populated cities, starv- 
ation would stare them in the face, with but a few 
months' cessation of the husbandman's labor. 

We talk of creating harmony between capital and 



104 OF GOVERNMENTS* 

labor ; but such cannot be, in the proper understanding 
of the terms ; for capital is the product of inharmoni- 
ous relations between the producer and the consumer* 
which, when restored to their proper equilibrium, 
wouH leave capital, in the most common acceptation 
of the term, out of the question. Nor need capitalists 
be startled at such an idea, for capital really now has 
no security for its possessor in any hands, from the 
boot-black to the emperor. It is a part of a destruc- 
tive system that must give way to the mild influences 
of truth, or be swept by the torrent, and deluged by 
its own destructiveness. Capital is not a producer, 
more than the slave-driver's whip is so, but alone a 
consumer, or rather a medium between the consumer 
and producer, to enable one to consume, without 
producing. Capital, which gives its possessor power 
over labor, to the extent of that power is alike detri- 
mental to human welfare and freedom, as are the slave- 
laws of the Carolinians and the driver's whip. 

The earth and the elements, to which may be applied 
the bone and muscle of beast and man, directed by in- 
telligence, each of which must harmonize with the oth- 
ers, and universal nature, are the real producers. The 
want of harmony between them brings disastrous re- 
sults. No matter how much apparent external wealth, 
if harmony be wanting, in a few months or weeks all 
may be wasted, leaving the land in desolation. Intel- 
ligence, bone and muscle, centred in one being har- 
moniously, can bring results not attainable when the 
former is separated from the latter. 

Our fathers saw the evil consequences of the accu- 
mulation of capital in the hands of the few, which was 
a prominent feature in English society, and endeavored 
to avoid it by a modification in the law of entailment 
of property. They did not understand that the whole 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 105 

structure of English society and government was false, 
though they claimed to be Christian men, and often 
read the injunctions of Jesus, " Lay not up treasures 
on earth ; " " Take no thought for the morrow : " " Re- 
sist not evil ; " " Turn the other cheek also." 

The man of money and moneyed power is ready to 
ask of those desiring to overcome such, what he is to 
have in exchange for his wealth, for which he has 
toiled, overreached, and grasped, until he is incapable 
of the former, and knows no other means of sustenance 
than the latter. For money we have nothing to give. 
It is of no worth in a true state of society. It is 
merely a modification of the slave power — a muffled 
whip — which leaves blo6d in its track, while the thong 
is unheard and unseen. If the man of external wealth 
would buy privileges and power with it, he must do so 
of the present order of society. Though he can have 
nothing in exchange for money, he can have every- 
thing for humanity ; — bread for the laborer, and the 
same for those incapable of labor, and charity for all, 
however fallen. There is more for all than the most 
affluent now enjoy. 

In the kingdom of heaven, or a new order of soci- 
ety, " sterling " worth will be the mark of distinction, 
" treasures in heaven " in the heart, of which we can- 
not be robbed ; and not, as now, a sack of gold or a 
package of exchange, which may within the next half 
hour pass into the hands of the veriest scoundrel liv- 
ing, to give him power to crush and enslave humanity. 

We do not ask the rich man for his riches, other 
than he possesses the riches of love and goodness ; but 
he need not complain if truth and goodness deprive 
him of the power to enslave his brother man. Bring 
the laboring classes into harmony with each other, and 
they quietly and peacefully take themselves from under 



106 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

the influence of the moneyed power, doing no evil or 
injustice to any, but good to all. 

Who would not glory to realize the time when mon- 
ey should no longer possess its power over man ; when 
the " El Dorado " of America shall no longer have 
attractive charms to lure her sons to waste their lives 
in the pursuit of the shining dust; but, instead, that 
each home shall have charms of a true and lasting 
character, that shall give permanency of enjoyment to 
young and old ? Those who have so anxiously watched 
the departure of friends, and waited in vain in almost 
breathless anxiety their return, can but pray for the 
realization of such a time ; and their prayers shall not 
be in vain if they give their lives to the work. 

If there must be consumers who produce nothing, 
let it be without a false guise ; let them unfurl their 
flag, and on it be written, not in Greek, Hebrew, or 
Latin, but in plain English language, "Pauper! priv- 
ileged to consume without producing." And, if it 
really be an honorary badge, let due deference and 
respect be shown it, and let not the Christian philan- 
thropist withhold the products of his industry from 
such, and drive them to live, by their wits, on the 
perpetuation of disease, superstition, antagonism, traffic 
and slavery of the mass. If M.D., D.D., LL.D., 
Hon., His Excellency, Esq., or any other title, be pref- 
erable to " Pauper," let them wear it ; but let it be 
understood that drugs perpetuate disease, and the 
popular dogmas, superstition and idolatry ; and that 
the laws of nations rendering evil for evil are too 
absurd for the approbation of a schoolboy of tea 
years ; and that the whole school of titles are too often 
but badges of the respective grades of pauperism which 
the wearers are content to bear. Let this be done; 
and no longer, that one class may live at the expense 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 107 

of another, teach men to swallow vile nostrums to 
restore wasted health ; or that prayers and oblations 
will atone for the transgression of true laws ; or that 
one great evil committed by the many is to overcome 
or lessen minor ones ; or that the position and title 
conferred on these public functionaries are anything 
more than a condiment on stale food, to make it be 
swallowed without detecting its offensiveness. 

I think it is generally admitted that the people are 
the most happy and virtuous — other circumstances 
being as favorable -jr- who are the nearest equal in their 
pecuniary circumstances ; yet the legislation of all 
governments has the tendency to make the rich more 
so, having but little regard for the poor, except to 
feed them in the poor-house, when they become so 
poor, from robbery and misfortune, as to* annoy the 
rich. Legislation throws thousands into the pockets 
which are already well filled, where it scatters units 
among the less favored in that respect. In fact, the 
enormous sums that ure thrown into the hands of these 
public functionaries are gleaned from the mass, and 
ofttimes to the depriving them of the means to supply 
the demands of nature. Legislation is so much a 
thing of money that, in some of our states, it is made 
a qualification for a voter. And, if one should distrib- 
ute his earnings among the poor, who are always at 
hand, and fulfil the injunction of Jesus, in not laying 
up treasures on earth, it would exclude him from a 
voice in the government that rules over him. And, 
in our own state, the laborer is too often so dependent 
upon the employer, that he cannot, if he would, throw 
his vote in the opposite scale, though he may feel its 
policy more just and beneficial to himself. 

Mr. Holmes, of the " Maine Farmer," of March 1st, 
says, of the "reciprocity treaty" with England, 



108 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

" However, the deed is done, and all our farmers will 
do or can do about it is to crouch like asses beneath 
the burthens thrown upon them by wily politicians." 
So I am not alone in the opinion that the really pro- 
ductive class get few favors from government. Sim- 
ilar thrusts are often aimed at government by the 
conservative press and partisans, who still " return to 
it as a dog to his vomit," or " crouch beneath it like 
an ass ; " never dreaming they are so " dog " and 
" ass " like ; but that such food is the most wholesome, 
and that they were made for such " burthens." 

Several of the state governments have exempted 
certain property from attachment, showing some favor 
to one class ; but the very poorest, those who needed 
favors the most, were made still poorer by the enact- 
ing of the law, which required of them a tax to pay 
for the enacting, when they had not the means to avail 
themselves of the benefit of the act. The laborers, of 
whom are the really productive class, can illy afford 
to study and know the law, even if they have the rare 
ability of tracing its serpentine and changeable course. 
And, if one know the law, he cannot avail himself of 
it without money, especially to contend with one who 
has money. With a moderate sum, one might get 
into law, but not out of it with any, unless he have 
much. Money is the oil that makes the machinery 
move, from the petty justice to the ponderous judge. 

Government permits a wrong of a small magnitude 
for a little money, and, of a larger magnitude, for 
more money, though, when it be a gross wrong, a 
more gross wrong by the government may be the pen- 
alty, thereby increasing the evil in one direction, 
while it vainly strives to diminish it in another. But 
it is often, and too truly said, that money enough will 
appease the vengeance of any broken law. The stat- 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 109 

ute laws of governments must of necessity always be 
something of the past, and never come fully up to the 
present growth of humanity, or light of science. 
Always something in the hands of the mere conserva- 
tive to retard the more progressive. If the more 
benevolent or humane who are connected with govern- 
ments would give way to their humanity in the admin- 
istration of the laws, the more conservative or inhu- 
mane deter such by a threat of the penalty of the law 
under which they have placed themselves ; thus is the 
law always a thing, of the past in the hands of the 
hindermost, to send its penalties as well to the real 
reformer as to reap its judgments by the corrupter. 

The humanity of the judges, though blunted by 
their position, is often put to a severe test to award 
such judgments as their oaths, the law, and the less 
enlightened and humanized public demand. A case 
came under my observation before a municipal judge, 
in which, if I understood him aright, he admitted the 
public good, or the prisoner's welfare, did not demand 
a conviction, but the evidence and the law did, which 
latter must be honored, though the prisoner's and the 
public welfare be sacrificed, together with his own 
humanity. My own present case partook somewhat 
of this character. If I am not deceived, Judge Hice's 
own humanity would have let me go free rather than 
send me here ; but the law cried for its justice, and 
the unjust were clamorous ; therefore real justice, 
humanity and mercy, must yield to its and their 
demand. His Honor made quite a plea, on giving my 
sentence, which I understood as intending to propitiate 
that part of the public which demanded a more severe 
sentence than his goodness of heart would permit him 
to award rne. 

There was a resemblance of inconsistency withal, 
10 



110 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

as there often is with venerable heads standing on 
public footing. At my trial, my attorney (shame on me 
that I permitted one to officiate in my behalf!) plead 
insanity in my behalf, without avail ; he, the judge, rul- 
ing such out. At my sentence, some months after, His 
Honor plead hallucination of my mind in mitigation 
of my sentence, and then to avenge a broken law, 
appease an outraged public, or to heal a hallucinated 
mind, he sentenced me to six months' confinement in a 
filthy jail, where I must, if proceeded with as is done 
by such convicts usually, be kept from pure air, proper 
exercise, and pleasant company, and fed on meats 
and soups, to overcome such hallucination. This is 
the most charitable construction I can put on the 
affair; — jail a poor bewildered being to heal him ! 

I am not intending this to stigmatize or eulogize 
Judge Rice, if I could do either ; for he has done the 
best he could under the circumstances ; and the worst 
also ; but I must ask the venerable judge, and his 
court and people, if it would not have been more 
proper to have sent me across the Kennebec to the 
hospital erected for those of unsound mind. How- 
ever, let that pass with the ridiculous, while we let 
this be a circumstance to teach us to place ourselves, 
in the future, on a platform that shall not make us look 
deformed when viewed from either side. 

If governments cannot forgive trespass against 
themselves, by their weak members, what can they 
expect weak members to do to each other, but to ren- 
der alike wrong for wrong, thereby ever increasing 
the evil ? Will they answer ? 

Treason is one of the unpardonable sins of govern- 
ments, even professed Christian governments, though 
treason consists in giving succor to an enemy. Sacred- 
ly heeding the injunction of Jesus, " If thine enemy 



OF GOVERNMENTS. Ill 

hunger, feed him ; if thirsty, give him drink ; " a very 
worthy and common-sense method, too, of overcoming 
enemies would doom one to the ire of government, 
even the American boasted government, and, may be, 
send him, loaded with chains, to a felon's cell, or his 
heart's blood trickling down his sides. 

Suppose England's famishing horde, who fight for 
bread, should land on our shores to do the bidding of 
an English court in seeking reparation for some real 
or pretended insult from a " fillibustering " cabinet, and 
I should meet them on the margin of the continent 
with the product of my farm (if I had one), giving 
them such as they needed ; why, I should be a traitor 
to my country, and the " hemp " or " lead " might be 
my doom, though a humane court might plead " hallu- 
cination " in mitigation of my sentence, and cause the 
already overtasked laborer to support me through the 
fulfilment of another sentence in prison, while I write 
another dissertation on government, showing her op- 
pressions. 

As treason may not only be no crime, but a praise- 
worthy act, so are many other deeds, regarded as 
crimes by statute laws, not so in fact, but praiseworthy 
acts. More than this, governments are, directly or 
indirectly, the instigators of many real misdeeds, 
which they regard and punish as crimes. The petty 
thefts, robberies and murders, by individuals, are but the 
rivulets, streams and rivers, while nations are the 
oceans ; and, as the little channels are filled from the 
condensation of the vapor of the ocean, so are these 
individual crimes dependent upon the collective 
crimes of nations for their continuation. 

All offences against governments are visited with a 
more severe penalty than like offences against private 
individuals. They, the governments, are the things 



112 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

that must remain inviolate, let what else, that must be, 
be sacrificed to that end. Here are extracts from 
popular sources which corroborate my statements in 
regard to laws and government : — 

" H7" Sherman M. Booth, of Milwaukee, has gone 
to prison, under sentence, for aiding the escape of an 
alleged fugitive slave, but does not seem much dis- 
heartened by his position. He says : 

" * Well ! We are in jail for the second time, on 
the charge of aiding a human being to escape from 
bondage ! And now, that we can say it without hav- 
ing our motives impugned, we pledge ourself to aid 
openly every fugitive to escape that we have an oppor- 
tunity to aid ! And this Fugitive Act, which has 
developed the iniquity of federal judges and officers, 
we pledge ourself to oppose while we live, till it is 
repealed.' " The editor comments : — 

" No man, not a slave himself, but will honor the 
humanity and bravery of this man, convicted for obey- 
ing the higher law. 

" ' Forasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of 
these, my disciples, ye have done it unto me.' " 

" Liquor Laws. — Mayor Wood, of New York, has 
addressed a note to Mr. Coleman, member of the 
Assembly, upon the proposed liquor law. Mr. Wood 
is of opinion that the present laws may be enforced, 
and intimates that they will prove sufficient for the 
evil : — 

" This evil in our midst appears to result rather 
from the non-execution of present laws, than from the 
character of the laws themselves. It is a popular 
error to mistake feeble administrative enforcements 
for defects in the statutes. This mistake has been 
productive of continual and never-ending legislation 
upon all subjects, until the books are so full of laws 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 113 

that none but the most astute and studying lawyers 
can tell what is and what is not law." 

These parties are all, for aught I know, government- 
loving ; one glorying in imprisonment for conscience' 
sake ; another honoring him for his humanity and 
bravery in defying the Fugitive Slave Law, and obey- 
ing the " higher law ; " and another holding the high* 
est office in the largest city in the Union, telling his 
people that their law books are so filled up with laws 
that " none but the most cunning and studying law- 
yer can tell what is and what is not law." And he 
charges the fault to " feeble administration." The 
truth is, an unpopular law will make its strong exec- 
utors " feeble," if they have to rely on the popularity 
of the law to sustain it, as they must do in this 
country, at this age, to enforce rigidly any statute 
law. And here, let me say, lies the permanency of 
all our statute laws, " popularity " with the people. 
Then, would we have wholesome and permanent laws, 
the people must have wholesome and truthful edu- 
cation. The people are not to be lawed to a higher 
position, but educated to it, and above the brute law 
which degrades. 

Here are further clippings, which show the miasma 
that arises from the seat of government, and spreads 
itself throughout the land. The latter is from the 
Boston Journal, of December 25, 1855 : — 

11 Congressional Dignity. — It is mortifying in the 
extreme to know that Maine representatives in Con- 
gress do not always treat the southern and western 
bullies, who sometimes are found in the capital, with 
the neglect which they deserve, instead of becoming 
blackguards with them. We think every paper and 
every man, prizing the decencies of life, ought to 
frown upon and condemn those who are so regardless 
10* 



114 OF GOVERNMENT 

of all that belongs to the true character of a Christian 
gentleman. If members of Congress are much longer 
guilty of such conduct, we shall think there was more 
truth than poetry in the remark of a boy, who, when 
asked if his father was a professor of religion, replied? 
' No, sir, he is a member of Congress! ' — The New 
York Courier and Enquirer thus describes a fracas 
between Gen. Lane, of Oregon, and Mr. Farley, of 
Maine : — 

" Mr. Farley, of Maine, a very amiable and mod« 
erate Whig member, has charge of the bill for estab- 
lishing a line of telegraph across the territories between 
the Mississippi river and the Pacific ocean. He urged 
it in a courteous and appropriate manner. He was 
interrupted by G-en. Lane, of Oregon, and, with ready 
politeness, yielded him the floor. The delegate from 
Oregon instantly launched out into a warm opposition 
to the bill, Mr. Farley, in perfect good temper, and 
in a mild and gentlemanly tone, called him to order* 
Gen. Lane turned fiercely upon him, and replied, * I 
will not be called to order.' Mr. Farley rejoined, with 
intense excitement of manner, ' I have as much right 
to call you to order as you have to call me to order.' 
Lane is represented to have hissed out the words, * You 
are a liar!' — to which Mr, Farley responded, ' You 
are a G— d d— d liar ! ' The parties instantaneously 
rushed upon one another, striking furiously. Whether 
any of the blows of either took effect, I could not 
determine. They were, fortunately, at the commence- 
ment of the fracas, separated by two desks. Before 
these obstacles were overcome, each of the combatants 
was surrounded and seized by several of their friends. 
The entire provocation proceeded from Lane, as the 
above description of the scene shows ; and, though the 
language of Mr. Farley admits of no other excuse than 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 115 

that of uncontrollable excitement produced by an intol- 
erable insult, the feeling and opinion of the House 
were unanimously with him." 

11 The Avenue was enlivened at ■ gloaming, yester* 
e'en,' by a regular rough-and-tumble fight. Wallach, 
editor of The Star, published an article on Thursday, 
showing that < Extra Billy Smith,' M. C, from the 
Alexandria, Va., district, had been elected by the 
K. N.'s, although he now claims to be a pure Dem-* 
ocrat. Meeting Wallach yesterday, Smith called him 
to account for the publication. Wallach retorted, and, 
soon from words they came to blows, Wallach throw- 
ing away a dirk-knife without unsheathing it. Then 
they clinched ; then they wrestled ; and down went 
Smith. But he rolled over on Wallach ; and when 
your own correspondent (who had seen the fight afar 
off) came up, the M. C. had in his mouth, chewing 
ferociously, the very finger with which the offensive 
article had been written, while the editor, with his 
left hand, was drawing claret from his adversary's 
nasal organ, and had put his eye into mourning. After 
having been pulled apart, they separated, cursing each 
other roundly, Smith evidently having had the worst 
of the fight. Such is life in Washington ! " 

Now, here are men sent to Congress to make laws, for 
which they are paid eight dollars a day, while I at 
best could scarcely save one dollar by honest industry ; 
and they, in their excesses, debauchery and excite- 
ment, enact laws and create powers, which the good 
people tell me are ordained of God, and are binding 
on me as a good citizen of my country, to submit to 
with honor and deference, and not only submit to, but 
silently pay for the enacting and enforcing, though 
they take from me my natural, God-given rights, and 
make me a galley-slave. I need not go further into 



116 Otf GOVERNMENTS* 

an exposition of such a fallacy under the name of law# 
On the face of it, in the most intelligible characters, 
are written, " Unworthy of a Christian man — a free- 
man—an enlightened man." # 

Gov. Morrill's strictures on the doings of Congress 
are quite to the purpose, and, if he will make his 
practice worthy of his precept, he will make himself a 
more worthy governor than many who have gone 
before him. There are many who are aware of the 
filth in which they are wallowing, but do not under- 
stand that they must come out, and separate them- 
selves entirely from the whole system, ere they can be 
cleansed. Of his own state's government and laws, 
Gov. Morrill says : 

"There is a deep conviction, in the public mind, 
that we have too much legislation, and that much 
money and time are thrown away enacting laws of 
doubtful utility, which are amended or repealed by 
the next succeeding Legislature, thereby encumbering 
our statute books with a mass of unnecessary, if not 
useless legislation, and making it very difficult for any 
but an experienced lawyer to understand what the 
law is, in cases where it should be so plain and sim- 
ple that the humblest citizen need not err in relation 
to its provisions. All will acknowledge the correct- 
ness of this sentiment ; it is with legislators to correct 
the evil. Another cause of protracted sessions and 
expense is undoubtedly found in the too ardent attach- 
ment which members have cherished for political par- 
ties ; often showing a greater willingness to extend to 
an unreasonable length the proper time for organiza- 
tion and legislation, than to yield the slightest advan- 
tage to a political opponent. Such, in an extraordi- 
nary degree, is the history of the Legislature of last 
year, and in a most decided manner have the people 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 117 

pronounced judgment against such a waste of time and 
abuse of trust. 

" The present is a time auspicious for improvement 
and reform. The people, disregarding old political 
organizations, have seen fit to elect, of the members of 
the present Legislature, a greater number who think 
alike on the great questions which must deeply inter- 
est our state and nation, than has usually constituted 
a legislative majority, and it is reasonable to antici- 
pate such harmonious action, and devotedness to the 
legitimate business for which we are assembled as will 
ensure a prudent and economical session, and an early 
recess. 

" Laws of doubtful utility, and very difficult to be 
understood except by an experienced lawyer," says Mr. 
Morrill; for the enacting of which my pocket is picked, 
and to respect which, though guilty of no crime, I 
must be shut up in prison, and, if I do not submit 
with deference, I am an undutiful member of society, 
and guilty of treasonable designs. 

Is there no higher law, not to be misunderstood, 
that is not of doubtful utility, that is not dependent 
upon political intrigue for its being, and that shall not 
need repealing, that does not require swords and mus- 
kets to enforce, but that will be honored for its own 
worth and beauty, that does not tax for enact ing ? I 
say, is there no such law that an honest, conscientious 
man may obey, regardless of Mr. Morrill's law, which 
he frankly depreciates ? 

" The present is a time auspicious for improvement 
and reform," says Mr. Morrill. What hope have we in 
the present and future that has not failed us in the 
past ? Have we not ever been changing in political 
parties and power, enacting over and over again the 
same that is now being done, each party promising 



118 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

milk and honey on its ascendency into power, yet give 
nothing good ? There is a ray of hope ; one little 
disk of light has made its appearance through the 
dark horizon of legislation, and the threatening storm- 
clouds may yet be dispelled, ere their fury scatters 
desolation over the land. In one direction has govern- 
ment learned not to render evil for evil : a reform 
school for boys, which accommodates some hundred 
and twenty pupils ; though a less number than it re- 
quired to legislate for its establishment. It is a bright 
spot in legislation that betokens the coming light. Yet 
I fear that, ere the day dawns, many a thunderbolt 
of man's folly will burst upon his head. 

Another little slip in Grov. Morrill's message, which 
contains sound doctrine, though seasoned with a con- 
diment which unfits it for the reception of the more 
intelligent mind : 

" The main pillars of our free institutions rest upon 
the intelligence of the people. The only true ground 
of hope that this republic will survive the lapse of 
ages, and be perpetuated from generation to genera- 
tion, following not in the downward course of those 
republics which have disappeared from the govern- 
ments of the earth, is that knowledge in this country 
is more universally diffused among the people, and 
that they know their political rights, and knowing, will 
insist on having those rights as intelligent freemen. 
Of what avail will it be, ere another century shall 
have elapsed, that we boast of a constitution surpass- 
ing in its provisions and principles any other law 
written by man, if the people are not imbued with 
the spirit of liberty, and enjoy such means of educa- 
tion as shall qualify them to assert their political 
rights at the polls and in the halls of legislation ? " 

How true, that the main pillars of free institutions 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 119 

rest on the intelligence of the people ! And how false 
that they rest on the legislation that is backed up by 
the sword and penal laws ! for neither of the latter 
educate the people, but both unfit them for education. 

Legislation that is backed by the sword is as adverse 
to education as two opposites possibly can be to each 
other. Legislatures are sometimes denominated the 
wisdom of the nation, but they too often prove them- 
selves the foolishness of the nation. 

Mr. Morrill need not flatter himself with a hope 
that any republic can survive the lapse of ages whose 
foundation is on the sword and penal laws, making itself 
the thing that must remain inviolate, while man and 
his natural individual rights must be sacrificed. 

It is an error in Mr. Morrill to say that the people 
know their political rights, if political rights mean 
anything but political wrongs ; for there can be no right 
in a wrong, and the base of all political movements, 
which are a doing of evil to lessen evil, is wrong. 
When men shall learn their rights, they will know 
that minorities have rights as well as majorities ; that 
every individual has rights, that no other individual, 
or number of individuals, has a right to trample on ; 
and when they become wise, they will know that to 
trample on another, though it be one differing from all 
the remainder of the world, is to transgress the law of 
their own being, for which they suffer without a possi- 
bility of escape. 

The rule of a majority may be as corrupt as the 
minority, and the rule in my next two neighbors, who 
would rule me because they are two and I one only, 
may be as despotic, corrupting and abasing, and as un- 
worthy of me, as the Russian emperor's, or any other 
foreign power. 

If I must submit to any foreign power to rule me, 



120 OF GOVERNMENTS> 

I am a slave to some one's else will, unless such other 
will be in harmony with mine, and then it cannot be 
said to be a foreign power ; for we are joined by the 
ties of nature, which is love, which makes us as one. 
If one may not live his or her own true life, whose 
life shall they live? The debauchee steamed, soaked, 
and smoked, until he hardly knows whether rum, tobac- 
co, or bread, be the staff of life, may muster his num- 
bers, and as properly say to me that I must submit to 
his course of diet and drink, because he looks more 
ruddy and plump than I, as that others, because they 
are majorities may make other laws for me. Sup- 
pose Russia should overpower the other Eastern powers, 
and sweep her arm across the Atlantic, and seize the 
reins of government from President Pierce and his 
cabinet, what then? Must I submit to another armed 
brigand and change of laws, because they have been 
the most successful in destroying human life and tram- 
pling on human liberty ? It is just as proper that I 
should do so as that I should now acknowledge the 
right to rule me in others that now surround me. 
Submit I may, of necessity, be obliged to do ; but I die 
a free man in my spirit, though my body moulder in 
the prison. I have taken no active part in govern- 
ment, state, or national, for many years, having con- 
scientiously withdrawn myself from all connections, 
except such as I was obliged to submit to by way. of 
taxes, and have even refused to take advantage of 
the law to collect just demands or protect my property ; 
and why should I be claimed as one of the murderous 
compact, and have their mandates imposed on me ? 

I have said that majorities may be as unjust and 
despotic in their requirements as the Czar of Russia. 
And Alexander and his court might well blush for 
shame for the imprisonment of one for a like offence 



OP GOVERNMENTS. 121 

to that which has given me a six months' confinement 
in jail. The dark ages would be blackened by the 
record of so base injustice. It is only the distance 
that makes the Spanish inquisition more obnoxious. 
If an officer in the United States government had 
been in Spain, and committed no more moral wrong 
or transgression on Spanish laws than I have against 
the constitution and laws of the United States or 
State of Maine, and had been thrown into prison 
therefor, the whole United States government would 
have been indignant at the outrage, and, more than 
probable, the stars and stripes would have been flying 
on tke wings of the wind to demand at the cannon's 
mouth his liberation. 

I have said I am quite willing that majorities or mi- 
norities should rule themselves as wisely or as foolishly 
as they are wise or foolish ; but when they tell me their 
law is my law, I demur, especially if they tell me I must 
become a murderer of my brother to save myself, and 
much more to save a government that is unworthy 
of an existence on earth. I wish not that my brother's 
blood should be found on my hands; I wish to 
take no part whatever in any code of laws that are 
so unwise as to render evil for evil. It is enough 
that I submit to her injustice to me without physical 
resistance. When I can no longer see that I owe a 
debt to humanity, and my life becomes a burden to 
me from the intoleration of my views, the earth may 
drink my blood; but never, I trust, will it drink a 
brother's blood at my hand. 

I am ready to do the right, and, if need be, suffer 
the wrong. If the world has need of further sacri- 
fice, let it be so. I must fulfil the law of my own indi- 
vidual, internal life. In so doing, no harm can come 
to me on the whole, though perpetual imprisonment 
11 



122 OF GOVERNMENTS.. 

or the gibbet be my doom for the transgression of the 
law of the land, which, at best, is but the law of 
other's life or death, which they would impose on 
me. 

Mr. Morrill asks, " Of what avail will it be, ere 
another century shall have elapsed, that we boast 
of a constitution surpassing in its provisions and prin- 
ciples any other law written by man, if the people are 
not imbued with the spirit of liberty, and enjoy such 
means of education as shall qualify them to assert 
their political rights at the polls and in the halls of 
legislation ? " 

I ask, what availeth a constitution now, that de- 
clares free religious toleration, which bows subservient 
to a religion of forms and idle words, and mocks at 
and persecutes a religion of the life consisting of noble 
principles and deeds ? Of what avail to imbue the 
people with a spirit of liberty, when for that spirit 
of liberty its possessor may be put under keepers within 
the prison walls ? What availeth the means of edu- 
cation, or education itself, to one, or the few, or many, 
if the mass are to rule the few or many with their 
ignorance, idolatry, and unenlightened selfishness? 
What availeth virtue, righteousness, or goodness, at the 
polls, to be overpowered by numbers not possessing 
these qualities ? Of what avail are any political 
rights depending on the sacrifice of natural rights? 
And of what avail any power vested in the sword, ren- 
dering evil only to overcome evil ? All such power is 
of no avail except to increase the evil and overcome 
itself. 

Does Mr. Morrill think he, his council, and the 
Legislature of Maine, can all, in a lifetime, in their 
public capacity, repay me for the months' restraint of 
that freedom which I humbly begged at their hands? If 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 123 

they suppose so, they mistake the capacity of their 
power to do good in their governmental compact. 
What availeth me the boast of the free institutions of 
America, since, for living in my own highest convic- 
tions of right, though not trespassing on the right of a 
worm, I am thrown into prison? At the courts I 
beg to be permitted to show the truthfulness of my 
position, and what are my "natural, inalienable rights," 
and I am told it is not the proper place. At the pub- 
lic press, so " free," I seek admission to give utterance 
to my pent-up thoughts, and am turned away with 
coldness. In my prison I beg an interview with the 
clergy in vaim All, all sold slaves to church, state 
and mammon. I seek the property I once called my 
own, that I may set free the thoughts that might 
otherwise consume me, and it is almost the same as 
confiscated, and I am threatened with the mad-house, 
only to suppress truths that the heads of these institu- 
tions dare not, cannot meet, otherwise than with the 

This government, as I have said, declares free reli- 
gious toleration shall be guaranteed to every individual, 
and opens her courts and assemblies by invoking the 
blessing of Heaven in spreading truth and right, yet 
would close the mouth that would teach Christianity 
or a religion of love ; and well she might, for hers is 
the opposite, and her being depends upon the sup- 
pression of the Christian religion. 

Yet, for all the promise to protect all religions free 
from harm, she has suffered the Mormons to be driven 
from the soil they had subdued by their industry ; and, 
now that they have fled to the wilds of the interior for 
safety, they are threatened with a crusade to subdue 
or destroy them. Within our own state has a Catholic^ 
having the same right by the laws to his religion, that 



124 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

others have to theirs been mobbed, robbed, and rode on 
a rail ; all of this under the eyes of government ; if she 
has any eyes not blinded or plucked out. Am I told 
the government should and will make amends for these 
wrongs she has inflicted and suffered to be committed,, 
after guarantying protection ? Will she put her hand 
into her treasury, and indemnify the Mormons for the 
loss they have suffered ? Does she, from her coffers,, 
pay the Catholic for the loss he has sustained? Doe& 
she give him sympathy for his wounded spirit? Will 
she, when she learns, if ever she does so, that I have 
endured imprisonment wrongfully, recompense me for 
her injustice, so far as she is able to do so ? No. 
She will do no such thing ; and she has not the abil- 
ity to recompense me for one month's deprivation of 
my liberty. So much of human freedom has been 
sacrificed, — so much has gone never to be recalled!' 
If any of us get good gifts to repay for our wrongs, 
they must come from elsewhere. Had the govern- 
ment a soul, had she life, had she anything good to 
give, we might have hopes she would do something 
toward such an object. If she give money, it would 
be the price of blood in some other direction. Her 
beginning and her existence are wrong — are evil ; 
therefore she can give nothing good. She can redress 
wrongs — commit greater wrongs, or other wrongs^ 
thinking to overcome those already committed, but 
really only increasing the wrong. Her work is not to 
render good for evil, but evil for evil, and evil for 
good ofttimes. 

Though accused of Mormonism, I am no Mormon* 
that I thus speak against their being abused. I am 
further removed from their religious tenets than they 
are from the religious or political despotisms that 
drove them from their home 5 and I am quite as fax 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 125 

removed from Catholicism ; but either of their relig- 
ious rights are as much respected by me as the relig- 
ions of those who persecute them. And they who 
take such means to subdue either, show themselves the 
most wanting iu practical Christianity. 

If the Mormons, Catholics, or Free-lovers, have a 
false doctrine, the worse is their own, and none is any 
better that would suppress them by violence. No evil 
in either can be forcibly and effectually suppressed by 
violence except by complete destruction, which in- 
volves the destroyer, and makes him the destroyed 
also ; but, if the evil be left free, it will be its own 
destroyer without involving a second person or party. 
The evil must be won from their evil ways by the 
good, or be left free to perform their own suicidal 
acts, or, what is worse, the whole will become in- 
volved and destroyed together. 

It cannot truly be said that government does a 
good, on the whole, even to those who directly draw 
their support from her coffers. Many of our best men 
are spoiled in office seeking and finding. It unfits 
them for the more useful employments of life, and 
makes them miserable dependents on the public, to 
whom they must fawn, in slave-like servility, for a 
continuance of favors. Intrigue and fraud are culti- 
vated to the total annihilation of all that is noble in 
man. The most gifted are too often sacrificed on this 
altar of human depravity. Our public oflices are now 
more sought after as a means to obtain bread and 
butter without honest industry, than for any good. 

These are evils too apparent to be denied, which 
one party charges to the other party, and the other 
party to them ; but the evils are not in one party 
or the other party in particular, but in both, and the 
institutions which have a being in falsehood alone. 
11* 



126 OF GOVERNMENTS 

There can be no reformation of either party,— no eonk 
version of state or nation. They are doomed institu- 
tions, because they have a being in falsehood alone. If 
no other way, they must go for the want of human 
life to feed on. They are not founded in love and 
harmony ; they do not acknowledge God or Love, the 
Ruler, except by lip-service ; therefore they have not 
wisdom, union and harmony to save, but folly, antag- 
onism and discord to destroy. 

Revolution, complete and thorough, we must have. 
It is only a question of when and how, and not 
whether it shall or not come ; for it is inevitable. We 
may think to stay its progress, and hold it in check 
for a time ; but, only like the pent-up water, to gain 
redoubled fury, and sweep, in mighty torrents, down 
its wonted course. The question, shall it be a peace- 
able one, is not unimportant. The transgression of 
nature's laws brings with it its own fatal results. If 
governments trespass on the natural rights of the 
people, and the people rebel with bloodshed, it is only 
following the instruction of the parent. It is as a> 
house divided against itself, that cannot stand. If 
governments could teach the people Christian non- 
resistance with her oppressions, then the consequence 
of her injustice might not so surely result in human 
slaughter. Evil will be overcome, and there are but 
the two ways to accomplish the work ; one is, by the 
good, and the other is by its own blindness in destruc- 
tion. If the latter be the mode, government, with 
which is connected the church, is responsible for the 
result. Those who demand freedom at the point of 
the bayonet, and those who resist it with life, are sim- 
ilarly under the influence of a transgression of true 
laws, and may alike suffer the consequence. 

With soldiers patrolling our streets, and our poll$ 



OP GOVERNMENTS. 127 

guarded with revolvers, one might suppose the time 
for revolution not far distant, and the mode quite 
sure ; but we would not wish to believe that American 
soil shall be sprinkled with American blood by Amer- 
ican hands. The far-seeing already predict such a 
result, though the blinded see no present cause to fear, 
but from afar spy cause for alarm ; but our greatest 
foes are not from afar. With all our boasted purity 
of government, America's -greatest cause of fear is the 
corruption of her own internal institutions. Purity 
within, and we are secure from any external foe ; but, 
with the turmoil consequent on depravity, there can be 
no safety under any favorable external circumstance. 
Foreign invasion would unite the people to repel the 
foe, and for a time quell the turmoil within, to more 
effectually break out in future; but, as I have said, 
there is no fear from abroad. Despotic governments 
have enough to do at home to suppress the growing 
desire for freedom, and those desiring freedom will 
rather cooperate with others desiring than war against 
them. Let the United States make her government 
one of freedom, rather than one of chains, and the 
world will bow in honor, rather than rise up in arms 
against it. But the United States is a government of 
the sword, holding men out of harmony by geograph- 
ical lines, rather than a government of love, only hold- 
ing by pure affinities ; and the whole system must pass 
away, and man be freed from government, in the 
present acceptation of the term, and be allowed to 
form a government of love — of God — which can give 
the most perfect freedom to all, rather than a pretence 
to a part only. Love being the tie, all unions will be 
in harmony ; therefore wisdom, and all the attributes 
of the Deity, will be in attendance to save. Man- 
kind can unite in love, in God, for good; and any 



128 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

other union is only to destroy. It is a mistaken idea 
that freedom, happiness, or goodness, cannot be sus- 
tained without a union of military force to preserve it 
Every good comes single-handed, or in a union by 
love, while evils only come of a union out of harmony, 
maintained by the sword-power. 

Individual enterprise outdoes governmental, in every 
direction, except in war-making, which only destroys. 
Our railroads, our steamboat lines, our telegraph 
wires, our best schools, are all built, established, and 
endowed, by private enterprise. Sometimes govern* 
ment makes donations, provided certain other sums 
are provided by private individuals. Said Mr. Ben- 
ton, the statesman, at a meeting in New York on the 
contemplated Pacific Railroad, " It must be a national, 
but not a governmental enterprise. Government 
bungles whatever it touches. It cannot build a frig- 
ate, it cannot send a letter, as quickly, as cheaply, or 
as well, as private individuals. Government must not 
build this road. No aid from the United States, ex- 
cept as a customer.'' Here is the story of government 
from one of her greatest statesmen, — " bungles every 
thing she touches." This is a truth honestly told. 
How could it be otherwise, since government itself is 
a u bungle " ? If it only bungled railroads, frigates, 
and letter conveyances, it might be more tolerable ; 
but, when it substitutes its laws for those of God, and 
bungles half the children born, and then, to mend the 
bungle of its own creating, endeavors to patch it up 
with penal fines, prisons, and gibbets, it makes govern- 
ment perfectly intolerable. 

" No aid from the United States except as a cus- 
tomer," says Mr. Benton. Give the letter to be conveyed 
into the hands of those who, Mr. Benton says, can do 
it quicker, cheaper, and better ; and then what custom 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 129 

has the United States to give any railroad, unless she 
make war for the purpose of making business ? The 
truth is, when she ceases her war-making business, she 
is no longer a government ; but we are a nation of 
freemen, ready to learn and teach to be Christian men. 
Then well might we boast of American freedom, and, 
after we had learned Christianity, haply — haply, 
might we send missionaries abroad to convert the 
heathen. Until then, let us do our work at home. 
Said Jesus, " The beam out of our own eye first." 
When this is done, we can see clearly how to remove 
the mote from our brother's eye without powder, ball, 
president or king. 

What of all the panorama of government that might 
not be dispensed with this moment without detriment 
to the real welfare of the people, as a whole ? In six 
months, everything good that government does would 
be in the hands of private individuals, moving like 
clock-work, giving us a perpetual movement in pro- 
gression without the constant winding up disturbing 
the whole nation. The letter to be conveyed, which is 
the most essential of all the doings of government, Mr. 
Benton truly says, can be better done by private en- 
terprise. The expressmen have quite as perfect sys- 
tem for conveying packages, and would soon supersede 
that of the government, if the laws permitted. Some 
little marine regulations, that are in the hands of gov- 
ernment, would need the fostering care of the philan- 
thropist, and they would give all such needed care 
gratuitously. The laying down of arms by govern- 
ment would be a treaty of peace with the world, with- 
out the long controversies and heavy expenses usually 
attendant on such, and the war-frigate to enforce their 
observance. William Penn, in his treaty with the 
aborigines of our country, the only one, it is said, 



130 OF GOVERNMENTS. 

which has ever been kept to the letter, is an illustra- 
tion of what peace principles, together with the prac- 
tice, will accomplish. The nations of earth would be 
ashamed to infringe on the rights of a people who 
would not contend in war, but rather yield to a wrong, 
and render good for evil, than resist evil. Were 
Europe's soldiery met with a Christian, non-resisting 
spirit, on landing on our shores, they would seek homes 
with us instead of fighting us. The Bull-ies would 
find more than a match for their bullyism, and the 
more peaceable could rest in quiet. Individual rights 
would be protected, and universal good would be fos- 
tered and respected. 

Of the wrongs of the Indians, of which I have said 
nothing, " Gen. Houston " (in a lecture in New York, 
says the reporter) " made a broad statement, that an 
Indian tribe had never been the first to violate a 
treaty. He said that the recent troubles on the fron- 
tier, for the suppression of which new regiments have 
been asked, had arisen, in every instance, from the 
aggression of the white man. He asserted that, of the 
one hundred millions of dollars which Congress has 
voted from time to time for the benefit of the Indians, 
eighty millions have been absorbed by fraudulent 
agents and traders. He detailed some incidents of 
early Texan history, which strikingly showed that the 
Indian, when treated with fairness, is one of the most 
unflinchingly faithful friends." 

Though Gen. Houston does not directly charge the 
government as the aggressor, he does so indirectly 
through its agents and the people. How much of all 
this territory that has not been obtained of the Indians 
by conquest and fraud through the government and its 
agents ? And then, because the poor Indian does not 
quietly submit to the depredations of the white man, 



OF GOVERNMENTS. 131 

more powder and ball is called for by professed Chris- 
tian people, of their professed Christian government. 
Gen. Houston here adduces the same principles which 
I advocate throughout ; faithfulness to the Indians, to 
make them faithful. We must not go abroad with 
treachery, thinking to beget anything but its kind. 
Would we have reformation indeed, we must begin at 
home. So far as we exert any influence, it is to cre- 
ate our like ; then would we exert a wholesome influ- 
ence over the Indian character, our own must be 
wholesome — not aggressive on the rights of the red 
man. And the government has no business to chas- 
tise the Indians for any of their aggressions, until itself, 
its people and agents, cease their aggressions, and make 
reparation for past aggression. When they have done 
this, as says Gen. Houston, the Indians will be found 
to be " the most unflinchingly faithful friends." There 
will no longer be a feud existing between the races to 
be repelled with arms. 

I could have filled this volume with evidence similar 
to this I have cited from Gov. Morrill, Gov. Gardner, 
Mr. Benton, Gen. Houston, and the Christian Almanac, 
for disparaging the government; but I have quoted 
enough, and said enough, to convince the intelligent 
reader, who wishes to be convinced of the truth, that 
the government is an institution rotten to its core, and 
to induce such to separate themselves from it, and 
raise their voices for the right. Those who are wil- 
fully ignorant and dastardly conservative, would not 
believe, though the portals of heaven open, and a voice 
from there speak. Such must live in their unenviable 
condition until they are satisfied. 



CHAPTER V. 

JUDGMENTS. 

I cannot see, as many suppose, that judgments are 
put off, and that a particular day in future is coming, 
at which time all are to be arraigned and judged or 
punished; this would be giving credit on transgres- 
sion. Said Jesus, "Now is the judgment of this world; " 
and I should think that any one, with " half an eye," 
to look around on the world, and witness the war, 
rapine, murder, disease, deformity, destitution, prod- 
igality, ignorance, misery, fear and death, with 
here and there only a redeeming quality, must ex- 
claim with Jesus, " now is the judgment; " and with 
the penitent man cry in his heart, if not aloud, for 
" mercy." 

That greater judgments are to come on the world, 
and on the American people, unless they repent, I do 
not doubt ; but that a future impending judgment after 
death is hanging over men's heads, from which they 
are going to escape by crying Lord, Lord, or perform- 
ing Jewish rites, or even Christian rites, I do not 
believe ; or that any such rites or ceremonies, without 
the heart or life of Christianity, which is love, — God's 
pure love, which shall show itself to the world in wis- 
dom, humanity and charity to God's children, — will 
save us from the impending ruin or judgments that 
are to come in this world, I also doubt exceedingly. 
Mankind may deceive themselves, or be deceived, and 



JUDGMENTS. 133 ' 

follow straightway the road to ruin, and by and by 
vainly cry, Lord be merciful ; unless they have mercy 
in their own hearts for themselves and their brother 
man, it will be in vain they cry. It is in vain, we 
think, to be saved without God in us, and we in him ; 
which is love, wisdom, virtue, forgiveness, charity, &c, 
and these we will show in our lives to our brother 
man. But if such a time is to come when the good 
are to be separated from the evil, who are to be saved 
while the evil are to be sent away into " everlasting 
punishment " ? How many of us are there to whom 
Jesus can say, " Come, I was an hungered and ye 
gave me meat ; thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; a stran- 
ger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; 
sick, and ye visited me ; in prison, and ye came unto 
me"? 

Neither can I see that judgments come of God, as 
most imagine. I regard judgments as evils, and can 
see nothing in God but good ; and if nothing but good 
be there, no evil can come from him. If evil be there, 
then he possesses opposite attributes, a ad in choosing 
to serve God we should choose to serve evil, in part, 
at least. If there be any evil in God, and we assimi- 
late ourselves to it, then we are still, at least, a 
part evil. If God takes an evil to accomplish a good, 
then we may, with much propriety, do so too. Jesus 
says, " Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good ; " as much as to say evil would overcome us if we 
meddle with it, instead of our accomplishing a good. 
He tells us to be perfect as the Father. One with 
him, as he is one with God, and still warns us to shun 
evil, lest we be overcome with it. There would be 
danger of God being overcome of evil if he tampered 
with it. 

Evil itself may do a good work, but none to those 
12 



134 JUDGMENTS. 

who meddle with it ; it does nothing but evil to those 
who resort to it; no matter to how good a purpose 
they may have it in their hearts to apply it. I say, 
" it may do a good work ; " it is this : to overcome 
itself by its own blindness, to free the world of itself, 
that good may have the world for good, without con- 
taminating itself or becoming evil to destroy the evil, 
when that evil is so deep-rooted that good cannot reach 
it to overcome it with good. If this law of destruc- 
tion was not in the evil, all good would have to become 
evil to destroy evil, else we could never get rid of evil ; 
and, when all good became evil, all would be evil ; 
there would be nothing good, nothing to be saved from 
the general ruin. God himself would be shrouded in 
the pall of death. 

I can see the law of love in all matter, material or 
spiritual, the transgression of which brings the judg- 
ment, or is the judgment which is to destroy or dis- 
solve, that new forms may be taken which are in love 
and harmony. All out of this law are undergoing 
judgment or punishment — dying — which I should re- 
gard as dying in our sins, of which Jesus said, " Where 
I am gone ye cannot come." The judgment is of itself 
an evil to bring a good, but cannot be the good. 

Happiness is the design which can only be enjoyed 
in love and harmony, and when we are out of this law 
we are under the law of judgments to purify us in the 
present form, or change us by death that we may take 
new forms. That we are, or are not, to live again 
conscious of our present existence, if we die in our 
sins or under these judgments, is a point on which there 
is much disagreement in the religious world. Be that 
as it may, those under the law of condemnation, judg- 
ments, punishments and death, cannot have a realizing 
sense of eternal life abiding in them ; therefore, though 



JUDGMENTS. 135 

everlasting life be theirs, as others, they are in con- 
stant doubt and fear. Such is the result of the most 
popular theology of the day. It seems to me that the 
judgment of death is sufficient for any sin, and not 
too much for many. Also, that if the life that now is, 
is not worth preserving or prolonging by obedience to 
God's laws, it is not worth prolonging into eternity. 
Those whose lives are pure, good and holy, will be 
happy, and will desire that they be lengthened ; and 
those which are the reverse, certainly cannot wish an 
extension, though they may fear death. 

If I understand the doctrine of Jesus in this mat- 
ter, it was more for present practical utility than for 
the future. It is certainly true to me that the measure 
I mete to others, the same is measured to me again. If 
I can give but death, I inherit death. If I can give 
life for death, I inherit now, in the present tense, life 
everlasting. As our faith is, so will it be unto us. If 
we have faith in God, it is faith in good, and the good 
will save us- — God will save us. If faith in the evil 
only, we pursue the evil, and the evil will, if we for- 
sake it not, overcome and destroy us. Nothing but 
God or good is eternal. God is the Infinite, and all 
else is finite, because evil, which destroys itself. 

That man can carry his present sinfulness into 
another sphere, where there is no death to cut it short, 
I do not credit ; for it would make God wanting in 
some one or more of his attributes of wisdom, power, 
or goodness. 

The attributes of God are all of one class, and good ; 
such as wisdom, life, love, liberty, harmony, attraction, 
fearlessness, forgiveness and charity ; and their oppo- 
sites, which are the transgression, are all evil of them- 
selves, but their final result is good, since they de- 
stroy themselves. They are folly, death, enmity, bond- 



136 JUDGMENTS. 

age, discord, repulsion, fear, judgments or punishments, 
and condemnations. Admitting this, which seems to 
me indisputable, would make it impossible for God to 
send judgments or punishments without taking evil 
measures to accomplish a good, if the result of pun- 
ishments be good ; and, if the final result be not good, 
it would be the ?nore unreasonable ; for it would be 
God taking evil to do evil, or transgressing his own 
attributes, or taking a power that is not his. Jesus 
tells us, " A house divided against itself cannot stand." 
This saying is just as true of God as of man ; and Je- 
sus applied it to himself, though he claimed to be one 
with the Father. If God be all love and harmony (and 
how can he be otherwise?), there can be no discordant 
principles, no division with himself, or his power ; 
while evil not only divides or separates itself from the 
good, but is divided against itself; it is all envy and 
discord, and cannot do otherwise than destroy itself. 

There can be no judgment where there is no trans- 
gression, and to say that judgment come from God is 
to say that God transgresses. I would just as soon 
look to God for all the other attributes that I call 
evil, as to look to him for judgments. It is plain to 
me, that they are all of one class, having their origin 
in the same fount, and are dependent on each other 
for a being. 

If I should look to my heart or spiritual life for 
God, and find condemnation, judgments or punish- 
ments, there for my brother-man, however much that 
brother had erred, I should at once conclude that I 
had sought him where he was not, and, more than prob- 
able, I should be calling aloud, thinking " he were 
deaf, or gone on a journey; " for I should be 
blinded by my own sins. God only lives in the light, 
and in whom he dwells there is no darkness or blind- 



JUDGMENTS. 137 

ness* He will shine into the darkness, but the dark- 
ness cannot comprehend, but will be overcome by more 
gross darkness, which is only another expression for 
judgments. 

There can be no death, or condemnations, or judg- 
ments, or punishments, rendered on those who are un- 
der the law of life, or the law of God, or without 
transgression in themselves. It was thus with those 
who were thrown into the lion's den and the heated 
oven. Nor can judgments be rendered by any who 
are under the law of life, or having eternal life abiding 
in them ; but such would say, I judge no one. In the 
same ratio or degree that we are under the law of life 
or death, do we give and receive life and death. Judg- 
ments always come to the condemned, and the most 
severe from the greater transgressor. Said Jesus, Ye 
judge as ye are judged, and are judged as ye judge. 
The pure at heart, or those without transgression, have 
nothing but charity for their offending brother, and 
turn themselves away from cruelty in any form, for such 
is unpleasant to them, because they have no correspond- 
ing feeling. This is a truism too universally understood 
to meet a dissenting voice. And how can it be so if 
judgments come from God ? If judgments and pun- 
ishments do come from God, the more godlike we be- 
come the more likely we are to judge instead of the 
less liable. 

If we have no prisons in our hearts for those who 
would throw us into prison, then the prison is of 
none effect on us ; so of the sword arrayed against us ; so 
of the cross, or any other means used to torture us into 
submission. There must be a somewhat corresponding 
evil or judgment in our hearts, or else the judgments 
from those under the law of death or judgments can- 
not harm us. It is plain to me, that if we have noth- 
12* 



138 JUDGMENTS. 

ing but charity and forgiveness to our enemies we are* 
like God, one with Grod as was Jesus, and when so, 
whether we are suffered to remain in prison, or go to 
the cross, Grod is with us, and all is well. 

I have identified judgments and punishments ; they 
are the same, and they are alike evils, whether they 
come from the few or many. Not in the same degree, 
if they come single-handed, that they are if they come 
by " authorities," as governments are pleased to term 
themselves; because in the one case they have the 
authority of one, and in the other the authority of the 
many. It was no less a judgment on the Jews that 
they crucified Jesus, than though an assassin had met 
him in the night-time and taken his life if he could ; 
but very much more a sin, because they as a nation 
partook in it, imbuing the hands of the whole in his 
blood, so far as all were identified with the govern- 
ment. The people are horror-struck that one man 
murders another ; but when the civil authorities, or the 
many murder one, or the military its thousands or 
more, they are very composed, because it comes from 
the powers that be, whom they think are ordained of 
God. If we can strip these powers of their divine 
shield, which only lives in the blindness of men's eyes, 
the world will look on the slaughter of a thousand 
as so many murders, more especially if they have 
learned that Grod sends no judgments ; but they, too, 
are from evil sources. 

It is no argument for a Christian man, that foreign- 
ers are our enemies, and we should murder them in 
platoons because they come against us in platoons. If 
we murder single-handed, it may be because the mur- 
dered was our enemy. The doctrine of Jesus was to 
love our enemies, few or many ; and with love for the 
weapon we can but be conquerors, however numerous 



JUDGMENTS. 189 

our foe ; for God is love, and too mighty a fortress to 
be taken. 

Again said Jesus, " If ye love only those that love 
you, what do ye more than others ? " 

I have said the evil cannot sit in judgment on the 
good. They may think to do so, and the effect to 
them is the same, other than they do not get the reac- 
tion on themselves, as from the evil, but rather a good ; 
while their evil is one of the " all things which work 
together for good." The good cannot possibly be 
harmed by the evil. It is only the evil which can be 
destroyed, while the good will shine more radiant. 

Jesus was not harmed by his crucifixion ; nor did he 
really apprehend any harm on the whole, though he fore- 
saw what was to come. But, undoubtedly, the sin of the 
Jews, which they would visit on him, reacted on them. 
It was evidence of the great sin of the nation to cru- 
cify a Saviour, and, as a nation, they were already 
condemned and punished, and finally destroyed. Did 
that condemnation, punishment and destruction, come 
from God, or from some other source ? The Roman 
empire, like the Jews corrupt, inflicted the chastise- 
ment, though the seed of their own dissolution were 
sown, which must, as Jesus said, without repentance, 
have destroyed them. And what has become of the 
Roman empire, once thought to be so powerful? 
" Perished by the sword," their own " evil." Is it not 
plain that these judgments came, not from God, but 
rather from those under the transgression of his laws ? 
What said Jesus while on the cross ? " Father, for- 
give them ; they know not what they do." They did 
not know what they did. Their eyes were blinded by 
their sins, else they would have seen the beauty of the 
doctrines of love taught by Jesus, and embraced them, 
and been saved, not only from the sin of crucifixion, 



140 JUDGMMm 

but from their other sins, which were the cause of this 
sin. " Father, forgive them." From whence came 
such charity, such pleading, for those who were taking 
his life? From the God, or love, in Jesus. He and 
the Father were one, and could he ask of the Father 
what could not be granted ? If the destruction of the 
Jews was a judgment of God, the prayer of Jesus was 
not answered. Jesus forgave, and God could not do 
otherwise ; for he is all forgiveness ; but the Romans 
were not of God, were not good, could not forgive, 
nor could they be forgiven by themselves ; hence their 
destruction, as well as that of the Jews. 

They all were forgiven as they forgave. The Jews 
forgave with destruction, or forgave not at all ; and 
the same followed them. The Romans did the same, 
with the same result. Jesus forgave with life, and 
the same was his reward. The same was in him ; it 
was him. He was one with the Father, and could 
give nothing less. He gave his own temporal life, as 
an example to teach them. He had before given 
them of his spiritual life ; but they could not receive ; 
they were blinded by their sins. 

He did for the Jews all he could do. He said, " 0, 
Jerusalem, I would have gathered you as a hen would 
gather her chickens ; but ye would not." Though one 
with the Father, having all the power of God, he 
could not save them. God cannot save except by his 
own attributes. If he had forced obedience (were 
such an act possible), it would have been transgress- 
ing one of God's attributes — freedom — and the forc- 
ing of obedience, and saving the Jews at that time, 
would have been saving them in their sins, which 
would have been no salvation after all. From our 
sins is the work to be done. 

I said Jesus gave the Jews of his spiritual life. He 



JUDGMENTS. 141 

did so by teaching ; he spoke as with words of fire ; 
but there was no life in them corresponding to receive 
such ; they were blinded ; they had not a spiritual 
life to discern ; and Jesus was as ready to give his 
temporal life also. This was something they could 
see. They could see the blood flow from his wounds, 
realize the agonies of death, see him entombed, and be 
sure that the tomb was guarded, that his fellows might 
not take him away, and play an imposition on them, 
and still these all-convincing truths are discredited 
by the many, even unto this day. 

And is there not unbelief, except in Judaism, or is 
there not Judaism, except with the Jews ? Those 
wanting in the spiritual life that Jesus possessed, 
are they not in unbelief? Said Jesus, " Go, preach 
to all the world ; he that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved ; " " and these signs shall follow those 
that believe." Whom do those signs follow? Where 
are the believers? Who are the saved? The con- 
demnation is on me. I am not saved. If others are, 
I am happy that it be so ; and will search among my 
brothers, that they may cast the evil out of me. Tell 
me where is that life that knows no death ; that love 
that has no limits. So pure, so holy, and so willing 
to die as was he, not for those who loved him, but for 
those who spurned him, and such blessings implored, 
" Father, forgive ; " and such charity, " They know 
not what they do." Are these questions answered only 
by the echo " Where? " If they are answered other- 
wise, let me catch the sound ; let me follow to where 
God dwells in humanity, in that degree that he did 
with Jesus ; let me but touch the hem of such an one's 
garment that all evil shall flee from me. I wish it ; 
I seek it ; I will follow, even to death's door, if need 
be, and let the veil of death (if death can be a veil in 



142 JUDGMENTS. 

such a case), close on me, that I may have the spirit- 
ual life that Jesus could give. 

Jesus gave his life willingly, to teach a principle 
that he could not make the Jews understand without. 
I say willingly ; yes, it was so ; though for a moment he 
recoiled at the thought of so violent a death, and prayed, 
" 0, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me ; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou." I 
say, he recoiled ; yet he yielded to the necessity. The 
women who followed him did not fully understand 
him, and even his own disciples doubted, and much 
more so the Jews. They had not any of them attained 
that spiritual eminence which he had ; consequently, 
could not appreciate him. It is supposed by most of 
Christendom that Jesus died to atone in part or in full 
for man's sins, without which atonement man must be 
forever lost. I cannot so understand it. I can see 
that he died in consequence of man's sins, which sins 
brought them into darkness ; else they would have 
honored and respected his teachings, rather than have 
crucified him for them. If I do not misunderstand, 
the mission of Jesus was to elevate the race in the 
present sphere of life. I do not see how any who died 
in their sins are to be especially benefited by his gos- 
pel, or that any who died thereafter in their sins are 
to be. Crediting what was purported to have been 
said by him, I cannot see how any who die in their 
sins can go where he has gone. I am inclined to think 
that the great work of Christianity is to bring peace, 
love and quiet on earth, which, of course, must better 
prepare us to enter another sphere. I can see how 
all without sin can be saved, whether they ever heard 
of Jesus or not, and how all must be destroyed or dis- 
solved that do not learn the doctrines which he taught. 
That all before Jesus should die in their sins, because 



JUDGMENTS. 143 

there was no Saviour sacrificed, and consequently could 
not go where Jesus went, is incredible to me. 

Jesus placed their salvation on a belief in him, yet 
all the time pointed them to God, telling them to give 
God the glory. He knew he had the truth only which 
would save, and, if others had or could see that truth, 
it would be the same ; therefore they would believe in 
him ; be one with him, as he was one with the Father, 
equal with him. He said, if ye believe on me, believe 
on him that sent me. He and the Father being one, 
there could be no discord ; a belief on one would be a 
belief on both. No discordant principles could come 
from the Fountain of all Truth. It was and is the 
source from which all harmony flows. 

I will digress still more than I have done from my 
subject of judgments to say a word that occurs to me. 
It is often remarked to me like this : " All cannot think 
alike, more than be alike and act alike." It is thought 
this would be a dreadful world if all were of one mind, 
— that everybody would want everybody's else, — 
which would cause the utmost confusion. Now is 
there not such a thing or state as one thinking right — 
having God's thoughts ? And, if one can have God's 
thoughts, cannot two? And, if two, cannot any number? 
And is there to be discord in God's thoughts ? When 
God comes to be " all in all," is this confusion to 
reign ? Certainly not. God is harmony ; and all 
discord is the wanting of the Spirit of God. This dis- 
cord will destroy itself, or be overcome by harmony, 
when every one will be of one heart and one mind. 
" None will say, Know ye the Lord ; but all shall 
know, from the least to the greatest." 

Jesus " brought life and immortality to light 
through the gospel ; " — " brought to light." That 
life and immortality was before him ; else he would 



144 JUDGMENTS. 

have been the Creator of that life, which he only 
brought to light. That he was the one, and the chosen 
one in that age of sin, to bring that life to light, I do 
not doubt ; yet, after all that the life was brought to 
light, there were those in so utter darkness that they 
could not see the light. It could not be comprehended 
by them, and their darkness was overcome by more 
gross darkness. Jesus could give light where there was 
light, and he could do no more now. 

All nations, even of Christendom, are now in the 
gross darkness that the Jews were, and their fate is 
equally sure. They cannot understand God's govern- 
ment, which Jesus taught was to encompass the earth. 
Perhaps I am too fast in judging, as I ought not to 
do ; but, let me ask, Where are they ? I do not mean 
the few ; but the many, who understand and rely on 
God's power, which is love as taught by Jesus to save. 
Do not most or all of the so called Christian churches 
form themselves, or the members of their churches, into 
governments under military power for their protection, 
in reality taking the sword-power, or the same which 
crucified Jesus, to save themselves? And are they 
not perishing by their own sword, or evil, vainly rely- 
ing on a government of death to save themselves in 
life, when they should have the principles of truth, 
which would make their lives eternal, though all the 
powers of earth combine to destroy such life ? Do 
not they who form ' this, they think, the most enlight- 
ened of all human governments, rely on the same 
power to save, that destroyed the Jews, and will not 
the course marked out, if pursued, bring this nation a 
similar result? Is she not now on the wane — more 
than past the zenith of her glory ? I need not make 
any prophecies. If the nation, as such, escape heavy 
judgments, it will be by obedience, not by rendering 



JUDGMENTS. 145 

judgments ; and I shall be happy if they pursue the 
former rather than the latter. 

Do Christian nations think Jesus is coming with 
power and great glory to destroy their enemies, and 
purify the world for their especial benefit and his 
reign ? Do they not know that Jesus, as one with 
God, has no other power than to save, and that the 
destruction they feel for the offending is only in their 
own hearts destroying themselves ? The power of 
Jesus, so far as it was good, was from God, who is all 
life, and from whom no death emanates. All destruc- 
tion must come from other sources than from the 
Fount of life. If Jesus had thought to take life, even 
to save his own, he would have fallen from his spirit- 
ual eminence, or oneness with God. 

Jesus is to " judge the world in righteousness." How 
else could he judge the world than in righteousness, 
since he was one with God, who is all righteousness ? 
How did Jesus judge ? The same as every one must 
judge who is righteous, — with charity, forgiveness, 
life. He, when one with God, had no other judgments 
to give than righteous ones, and this was not judg- 
ment in the sense of condemnation, judgment and pun- 
ishment, but judgment in righteousness. When men 
themselves become righteous, they too will judge the 
world in righteousness ; they will be one with God 
the Father, giving and receiving life, instead of giv- 
ing and receiving death. 

I repeat. We all give what we have to give, and 
take what we give. If we have life, we give life. If 
we have death, we give death. As said Jesus, 
" Judge as ye are judged, and judged as we judge." 
The measure we mete to men is measured to us again. 
What will be the result of righteous judgments from 
men ? Just the opposite of what we now see in the 
13 



146 JUDGMENTS. 

world, — at once a stop to all evil-doing, now so prev- 
alent. When we render good for evil, life for death, 
we overcome evil with good, and death with life. All 
will then take on the beautiful robe of life, instead of 
wearing the dark pall of death which overhangs the 
world. Said Jesus, " He that will lose his life for m y 
sake shall find it ; " and he might have added, He who 
will save his life for other, or on other principles, hath 
lost it already. 

In giving our life, that is, quietly, unresistingly 
yielding in defence of these truths, we do not lose it, 
but find it with God. We cannot lose a life that is 
one with God, nor can a life continue that does not 
become one with him. 

Men judge men in unrighteousness because them- 
selves are unrighteous — - give men death for death, 
and often what they think is death, which only proves 
so to themselves, for life ; all of which is because they 
are under the law of death, and have nothing else to 
give ; but when men shall learn the truth, and be 
made to understand it, they will shun rendering judg- 
ments on others, as they would any other pestilence; 
and seek to give their brother men God's righteous 
judgments, if judgments they may be called, instead 
of their own unrighteous ones. 

It would be just as unrighteous for Jesus or God to 
judge the world in unrighteousness, as for men to do 
so, as they are now doing, and the result would be 
equally productive of evil. 

When men shall learn these truths, it will be to 
obey them, and be one with the Father, who shall not 
be with an only begotten Son, but we will all be his 
sons and daughters in a redeemed world, without giv- 
ing or receiving judgments or punishments. 



CHAPTER VI. 

PETITION TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRE- 
SENTATIVES IN LEGISLATURE OE MAINE ASSEM- 
BLED.* 

Gentlemen : — I, a prisoner by your law, and its ad- 
ministration, take the liberty to appear before you in 
behalf of humanity and Christianity by a petition, 
asking the repeal of your present marriage law in par- 
ticular, or any other law you have on your statute 
books, making it a crime to love or live in obedience 
to the divine law. Also, a repeal of all laws render- 
ing evil for evil ; therefore a disbanding of the mili- 
tary power of the state, and recommending the federal 
government to cease her military and naval operations 
of destruction, and rely on the moral, intellectual, and 
religious principle in mankind to save us as freemen, 
as Christian men worthy of the nineteenth century of 
that era. If you do not doubt the potency of the 
divine law of love to bind those who ought to live 
together, also its superiority over any other law in all 
cases, and the simple philosophy that evil begets evil, 
and that good alone can overcome evil and save, or 
that it always requires an opposite to change, and 
that these reforms I ask in your laws all conform to 
the religion of Jesus Christ, which your constituents 

* I have re-written this since it was presented, making somo 
little alterations, though not materially changing the sense. 
And, should I re-write it again, or any other article in the book, 
doubtless I should still make a change, making it more concise or 
comprehensive. 



148 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINEo 

as a people now honor in precept almost to idolatryv 
and which you, as legislators, respect by the daily 
opening of your assembly by a prayer from the pro- 
fessed followers of Jesus, — - 1 say, if you do not doubt 
this, then you are ready, with willing hearts, to grant 
the prayer of your petitioner^ without the trouble to 
hear what may be said to those who are so blind as to 
doubt these simple truisms. 

If, gentlemen, you are of those who are so blinded 
that you can seem to gaze at the sun in its noonday 
brightness, and yet discover no light, then bear with 
me, I pray you, while I remove the scales from your 
eyes, that you may behold the glory of truth in it& 
brilliancy. I would have you walk with me ; yet not 
one step in the dark, but rather in the light, and thi& 
you will do when, if ever, you understand yourselves., 
and willingly too, for you will not only see the light, but 
feel the genial warmth, and be invigorated by its life- 
giving principles. Not one of you but would leave 
your present all, and follow me, laying down your life,. 
if need be, for these principles of truth I would incul- 
cate in your midst. Then, I say, bear with me while 
I reason with you, and receive such and only such as- 
commends itself to your \earts and understandings, 
and fear not to trust your elves to the simple truth 
always. 

Bo not, I pray you, look afar off for commenda- 
tions or condemnations, or ask yourselves from whence 
come these sayings, that you should receive or reject 
them ; but bring them to the standards within your 
own bosoms, — to the God hid there, — almost buried 
beneath the rubbish of the past and the present, and 
ask, Are not these things so ? Are not these sayings 
true? And, if they are false, reject them by all 
means ; but, if they are true, receive them with glad- 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 14& 

ness, knowing that all truth is of God, and good, and 
worthy of your embrace, whether from the infant 
cradled on its mother's bosom, or from the stripling 
Who frolics in your streets, or from your own internal 
perceptions, knowing that God still lives to inspire, 
else there could be no life in any of us. 

Always, as you would receive truth for its own sake, 
from whatever source, so reject error, though it be a 
canon of the church or pope, and be clothed with a 
" Thus saith the Lord," or from the ambassador of the 
highest prince or authority of earth, and be thundered 
from their artillery, " Thus saith the law and author- 
ity." 

The umpire of every freeman, every Christian man, 
is his own heart — his own understanding. It is 
there, and there alone, for him, that God sits enthroned 
to counsel him. If we seek him elsewhere, we seek 
in vain. He is not in numbers, in majorities, in 
courts, in authorities, unless such are in union and 
harmony with him enthroned in our own hearts* If 
we reject the umpire of God in our own bosoms, to be 
with numbers, we live in darkness rather than in the 
light, and follow blind-led to death. 

The world of mankind have quite long enough lived 
in the bonds of the past, and humanity asks of you, so 
far as it be in your power, to let her go free. Give 
man, give woman, a respite frbm bondage, and let them 
love in freedom — in individual freedom — without 
bowing to any external rule or law. If the race may 
not have this priceless boon, love in freedom, then we 
may bid adieu to progression, and let roll back the 
tide of despotism, darkness and death, and again 
shroud the earth in the dark pall of ages past. 

The strife in the East is the precursor of what is to 
follow us to our own shoidd-be happy homes, but for 
13* 



150 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAfNlk- 

the principles of love and freedom, which would be & 
reversing of the policy or spirit of most of our idol- 
ized American institutions. 

Love we must have, else we die in strife and supine- 
ness, and freedom is the only element in which it can 
possibly live. What have we to fear from Love ? 
Can it harm a living soul ? It is the fulfilling of 
nature's — of God's law. And freedom, so much de- 
sired and so much sought after by all the good of the 
past and the present, shall it harm when coupled with 
or married to love ? Shall love and freedom, both so 
beautiful, so desirable^ of themselves, be corrupt when 
united ? 

Because licentiousness has been the product of love 
in bondage, we need not reckon on a greater crop when 
the blessing of freedom is given for that of bonds. 
Love, put in bonds, loses its virtue, and the vice of 
licentiousness takes its place, and peoples the earth 
with what we see, deformity, disease, enmity, strife,, 
and death ; and further legislation, and penal laws to 
overcome the effects of past legislation, add fuel to 
the flame which is already consuming the race. 

It is not the corrupt that ask more freedom, nor has 
it ever been. They have no love to hold what they 
wish, and ask the bonds of an external law to hold that 
which they have no claim to, except the claim of all 
tyrants, " Might makes right," which can only destroy 
while it subjugates. They desire the despot's cunning 
first to entrap, and then the despot's power to perpet- 
uate their foreign power, that can only enslave and 
destroy themselves as well as the enslaved. 

In no age of the world's history have the race en- 
joyed love in freedom ; therefore in no age have peace 
and virtue reigned. Humanity has been striving to 
overcome the bonds and slaveries of the past ; but un- 



petition to the legislature of Maine. 151 

Successfully because of strife ; at best only substituting 
one sin, evil or slavery, for another ; and now, with all 
the former efforts for freedom, African slavery, in our 
own beloved country, is making fearful strides north, 
and is received, granting her a power never before 
recognized. 

Thus you perceive that, in almost a century of 
nature's progression, government has been unable to 
achieve anything in that direction for human liberty. 
And, in every other reform as a government, she has 
been equally unsuccessful, though claimed to be by 
far the most enlightened government and people on 
the earth. It can hardly be said that intemperance, 
to which so much thought has been given, on the 
whole has lessened, though changed in form. And 
pauperism and crime our statistics show to have fear- 
fully increased, as well as insanity, idiocy, imbecility 
and deformity. Also has the struggle for the gain of 
gold, and the power vested therein, been enhanced in 
a fearful ratio. 

Our public offices, once so sacredly held in trust for 
the good of the whole, are becoming more and more 
prostituted to the sordid gain of gold, and its abusive 
power. Our political parties, once relied on with 
such confidence, are becoming more and more antag- 
onistic, sacrificing principle to party measures and 
party power, and now efforts are being made to dis- 
franchise a class of people who, like our fathers, fled 
from tyrannical rule, and have sought this land for 
political and religious freedom, which blessing is being 
curtailed rather than enhanced. 

I need not enlarge on these evils; for they are 
apparent to any except the most slothful observer, and 
their corroding influence is felt by all grades of soci- 
ety, from the least to the greatest ; from the poorest 



152 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAltfE* 

to the richest. But there are other evils, underlying 
all these, which are the primary cause, that the super- 
ficial observer overlooks ; therefore, in his blindness, he 
only wars with effects, instead of removing the cause; 
hence the futility of his efforts. And the same blind* 
ness that allows him to imagine the effect the cause, 
suffers him to endeavor to remove what he supposes to 
be the cause, by a concentration of the same power of 
evil, making one great whole evil to overcome the less 
ones, thus, if successful in removing the minor sins, 
leaving one great same, under a guise of authority 
still to be removed. 

Mankind have almost lost sight of the simple philos* 
ophy that like begets like, evil evil, and good good ; 
and that good alone can overcome evil, and save, 
though so simple a truth that every schoolboy of ten 
years should understand it. Though we are but mem- 
bers of one body, and are thus most sacredly by pre- 
cepts taught, and the measure we mete is measured to us 
again, yet so blind are we that brother tramples on broth- 
er, and measures to him death, taking to himself the 
same, instead of raising up and giving life, and there- 
by inheriting the same. With all our praiseworthy 
means of scientific education, and art so perfect as to 
make the steam propel our boats, uniting continent to 
continent, and speed us across the plain with the veloc- 
ity of the wind, and cause the sunbeams to imprint the 
landscape or our features on the burnished plate, and 
make the lightning tell our tales of joy and sorrow, 
yet so wofully blind to the simplest laws of nature, 
which are so intimately connected with our existence 
and happiness ! 

The diligent observer has sought and found the root 
of the tree of evil which spreads its branches far and 
wide to infect the race, and make the world, which 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 153 

would otherwise be a harmonic Paradise, a bedlam of 
discord, strife and antagonism. 

That Upas is the marriage law and custom, which 
binds uncongenial spirits, when love, pure and holy, 
does not exist, and sends forth offspring alike discord- 
ant, unloving, unwise. That law makes the purest, 
holiest affections a crime, and legalizes the most atro- 
cious sins. It is the sum of all slaveries — the foun- 
tain of all vice — the death-knell of all virtue. It 
acts hereditarily on the race, producing discordant 
beings, physically, morally, socially, and pecuniarily, 
in discarding the oneness of the race ; isolating those 
whose interests are really united, and making them 
appear antagonistic. Pardon me when I tell you a 
truth, that the great moral disease of society is fos- 
tered by the means which legislatures use to suppress 
it. This I am prepared to exhibit to you so plainly 
that you cannot gainsay it, if you will but permit me 
to appear before you, and will give me an understand- 
ing mind, and a listening ear. Human legislation, 
founded on the sword, is only a puny effort of evil to 
save the power in evil, while it destroys itself. God 
is the great Legislator, who has implanted his law of 
love and freedom, which alone can save and restore 
the world to its pristine happiness ; and that law is 
written in every individual particle of matter — in every 
individual body — in every state — in every nation, 
and the world of nations. To obey this law is life 
everlasting, and to transgress is death ; can it be never- 
ending? It were better so than a life of transgres- 
sion. All good is obedience to that law, and all evil 
the transgression. 

A violation in one direction leads to a like in an- 
other ; no violation in one point but is coupled with a 
like at another point. Said Jesus (if I recollect the 



154 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 

author), " If we are guilty in one point, we offend in 
the whole." To explain : temperance is obedience ; in- 
temperance the transgression. Peace is obedience, or 
the result of obedience, while war, or the sword-power, 
comes of the transgression. Freedom, harmony, and 
union through love, is the result of obedience to the 
divine law, while bondage, discord, and isolation, are 
the reverse. Love and attraction, are of God, while 
enmity and repulsion are their opposites. Now there 
can be no amalgamation or crossing of these princi- 
ples for a good. Temperance cannot be promoted 
by the sword or war power; nor peace, nor freedom, 
harmony, union, love or attraction. The war power 
begets all the evils, and any of the evils beget the war 
power. Therefore it is unwise to resort to the war 
power to promote temperance ; for the power itself 
cannot exist without intemperance. Let me add, 
your government and her laws are all based on the 
sword or war power, and the best they can do of them- 
selves is to destroy themselves, and whoever is with 
them is being destroyed by them, though they think 
themselves as good as the angels. 

© JO 

The one power or principle is good, is with God, 
and, if we are there, we are drawing or attracting to 
us, constantly adding to our strength. If in the re- 
verse, we are constantly losing. Men cannot be 
forced to be temperate. If any success attends the 
reform, it must be by the influences of the opposite 
power. 

As all minor goods are in one course, and evils in 
the other, so is all life in one, and death in the oppo- 
site. But, as one of these principles is ever destroy- 
ing, wasting, losing, and the other saving, creating, 
winning ; therefore one has an ending, while the other 
is infinity. 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 155 

I ask a repeal of the marriage law, because it 
exacts bondage, therefore is a transgression of the 
true laws of which is freedom. I ask a repeal of 
all laws making it a crime to love, because love is the 
fulfilling of the divine law. I ask a repeal of all 
laws rendering evil for evil, because evil can only be- 
get its kind, and, therefore, increase, and not dimin- 
ish, the woes of man. I ask the abandonment of the 
military power, because such only destroys, thinking 
to save. And all I ask of you, as legislators for the 
people, accords with the Christian religion, God, 
nature, and every good man's and woman's heart and 
understanding. 

Humanity or Christianity does not ask of govern- 
ments their swords to protect their love and freedom. 
Enmity and bondage, as I have said, are the offspring 
of the sword, while love and freedom are the prin- 
ciples of God, of natural origin, and have a being 
with God, and need no " cradling," no pampering, no 
nursing, except from their natural parentage. Let 
governments bury their despotisms, and let the race 
have their natural, God-given rights, which govern- 
ments usurp, and they will grow in goodness, and 
in the knowledge of the truth, that shall save, and 
not destroy, and make the world one kingdom, whose 
rule shall be love and wisdom, the only rule which is 
not unto death. 

If you, gentlemen, as legislators for the people, 
will give them back what they have so long been de- 
prived of, — their natural, inherent, individual rights ; 
freedom to love in accordance with their own internal 
or spiritual life, — then you will have done for true civili- 
zation or Christianization and peace and happiness on 
earth, what all the monarchs and freemen on the globe 
cannot do in countless ages with the sword. 



156 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 

Massachusetts boasts of "her cradle of liberty," but 
let Maine bring her despotisms, and carefully guard 
the grave that there be no resurrection, and in future 
time her offspring shall far, far excel those of the 
mother state. And how should the grave of despotism 
be guarded ? Not with despotism, but with love and 
freedom. As I have said, like begets like, and des- 
potism would beget its own kind — if need be, would 
raise the dead ; while the opposite alone can beget 
love, freedom, life, which humanity so much desires. 
Death came into the world by sin, and it may go as it 
came, by sin ; but life must come by righteousness, by 
obedience to the laws of God. 

Evil, I have said, can overcome itself only by de- 
struction — by a greater evil ; darkness, by more gross 
darkness; " while good creates life, which is of God 
and is God, who dwells in us all individually, and in 
the body politic, collectively, when associated ac- 
cording to affinities, or in love and harmony. And, 
collectively, under any other rule than love of God, 
who is the true spiritual head, we are devoid of wis- 
dom or harmony, and only destroy, vainly striving to 
save. 

Fear there is, and must be, while and where the 
other evils exist ; but there really need be no fear to 
disband, at once, all naval and military forces. It is 
only the evil, the corruption, which is destroying, 
which resorts to such means to save. Goodness has 
nothing to fear from numbers opposed holding the 
evil power, and the evil have nothing to hope from 
such power, for it only destroys as surely those who 
use it as those over whom it is exercised, if the latter 
are alike evil. Goodness, though single-handed, must 
prevail; and evil, with the world of numbers, must 
fail. But the two principles, and those embracing them, 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 157 

must survive or die independent of each other. God 
and mammon cannot be served by one. God has im- 
planted in the good the law of their own salvation, 
and no evil can harm them, and they cannot resort to 
any evil to save themselves or others ; and the law of 
destruction is also in the evil, and they can be saved 
from such only by a return to good. 

These principles, when understood, are to change 
the power of evil, which now rests in money and its 
agencies, to that of good, which will be vested in God. 
Then do not, I pray you, disregard this petition ; for 
it is truthfully and respectfully given, and on your 
accepting or rejecting it may hang the destinies of mil- 
lions of human beings among them ; may be, yourselves 
and loved ones at home. Though for weal or woe to 
so many, the final consummation is sure ; and peace, 
love and freedom, are to reign supreme on earth. All 
who oppose these principles only destroy themselves, 
and the rejecting of them by governments who hold 
the sword power, will only cause to be enacted over 
again what has been so often done in the world's his- 
tory. I have hope that there is too much wisdom in 
the American people to again drench their soil with 
blood. 

Anything you can do, as wise men, in answer to my 
prayer will be so much achieved. If you give this a 
reading only, something will be done. If laid before 
an intelligent committee for their consideration, so 
much the better. And if you will allow me to appear 
before you, and explain more at length, better still. 
All you can do, little though it be, will tell so much 
for the good time coming, which may you all have a 
share in. 

Let me add : It is not wise to infer that a repeal 
of the marriage law is to break all marriage relations. 
14 



158 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 

Every true marriage has a being elsewhere than in the 
external law, and every false connection is a great sin, 
a great evil, and should be broken. The true would still 
retain their true relations to send forth their blessings, 
and the false and discordant would no longer fill the 
prisons and hospitals. It is a mistaken idea that vice 
legalized becomes virtue, or that there is not virtue 
in sexual relations contrary to the common law of 
civilized nations. Virtue and vice are so by a stand- 
ard of nature, and the consequences are sure ; life and 
happiness in the one case, misery and death in the 
other ; though each nation has its standard, and thinks 
that its prerogative is to punish those which fall 
below. 

If one half the race were living in false relations, 
and a repeal of the marriage law would cause them to 
separate, throwing their present helpless offspring on 
the public for rearing and education, the public would 
be less the sufferers on the whole in the long run. It 
is much more wise to educate and train properly, 
though at public expense, than to let grow up under 
corrupting influences, and then punish or destroy. If 
for no other motive than that of saving the good from 
what they suppose to be the necessity of inflicting 
chastisement, thereby exerting an evil influence on 
themselves, it should be sufficient inducement to let 
the really disunited parties separate. But in separa- 
tions both parties, as now, would desire the custody 
and care of the offspring, and they would come to a 
mutual understanding between themselves, far more just 
than is now administered by courts of law. 

Freedom would settle the minor difficulties which 
now grow out of the ownership of each other by law. 
Neither could hold except by the law of love, which 
would be cultivated until it be the ruling fashion of 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 159 

mankind. The fear that woman would be seduced 
and abandoned is groundless. She could exact a pledge 
of property, while the property system retained its 
power, which would at once test the design. A man 
once forsaking a partner, without good cause or mutual 
consent, would be stamped with reprobation. The moral 
principle would be called into requisition and culti- 
vated, which never fails when relied on. 

You, gentlemen, would be slow to acknowledge that 
you would forsake your wives and little ones, or that 
they would forsake you, but for your external law of 
marriage, which binds you together ; and though you 
and your circumstances are not exactly as others and 
their circumstances, yet the dissimilarity is not so great 
as to make your cases entirely unparalleled. 

By free divorce intemperance would receive a check 
that never can be felt through any prohibitory liquor 
law. Many seek intemperance to render themselves 
insensible to the galling yoke and bonds of the mar- 
riage institution ; and many would be won from their 
intoxicating cup rather <than lose their partners, which 
they would do if the public and the law would tolerate 
a separation for drunkenness. It is equally unwise 
to infer that a repeal of all laws repaying evil for evil 
is to make evil any more prevalent, or the good less 
secure; but the reverse, exactly, would be the result, 
inasmuch as a good example is more wise than a bad 
one. A government which sets an example of evil for 
evil, must expect weak members at least to follow it, 
while the reverse could possibly have no other effect than 
overcome it. Charity, the prince of virtues, would 
lead the strong to raise up the weak, whether their 
inferiority be physical, intellectual, or moral. And 
such would not only bless the weak, and raise them 
up, but make the strong more steadfast, instead of 



160 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 

weakening themselves, and destroying those already 
weak. 

A disbanding of the military and naval forces, and 
their cost wisely expended for the relief of the poor 
and education of the ignorant, would tell a harmonious 
tale for the future as well as for the present. 

The laying down of arms, even in the presence of an 
enemy, is the beginning of wisdom, and the fulfilling 
all the law of love would be the reception of all wis- 
dom. Revenge, retaliation, anger, and the like, are 
the height of folly of themselves, and if there were 
greater follies, they would lead to them. Said Jesus, 
" Resist not evil ; " " Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good." If it be not foolishness to be 
overcome of evil, then it is unwise to resist evil, and 
more so, it would seem, in enlightened Christian gov- 
ernments than in the untutored savage. 

Resistance itself is an evil, while non-resistance is 
a reliance on God or a spiritual power; therefore a 
reliance on the latter will save us, while the former 
destroys itself, which, after all, makes non-resistance 
all resistance. All resistance overcoming itself, leaves 
one supreme power, who is God " all in all." Do not 
be too incredulous in admitting the existence of a 
spiritual power superior to physical ; the harmony of 
the movement of the heavenly bodies would teach us 
of its being, and when we harmonize in ourselves and 
with universal nature, we are recipients of that now 
almost unknown power. 

. Of this prison, and like places of confinement, and 
overcoming evil with good, which is the true philoso- 
phy of nature, as well as the same taught by Jesus 
and others, to which I have before referred, let me 
say, — 

Let not the Christian philanthropist imagine that 



PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAINE. 161 

any prison, however wisely arranged, and well-adapted 
to the physical well-being of its inmates, is a part of 
the code of his Master ; or the naturalist and philoso- 
pher, that the entombing of men beneath piles of stone 
and mortar, away from the sunlight and pure air, is 
natural, philosophic or wise, or calculated in any way 
to benefit even those who escape the injustice, And 
more unwise is the confining of three, four, or half a 
dozen in one cell, but little better than a grave, and 
inadequate in size to the physical well-being of one. 
If you, gentlemen, imagine you are serving humanity 
by so doing, you have but to spend six months as an 
inmate to unlearn your errors in that respect. You 
well understand, once a prisoner, county or state, and 
the probability to a second like is doubly enhanced. 
And could you be jail prisoners for a few months, as I 
have been, you would loathe the whole fabric of the 
system as you do the hell you pray to escape. If the 
confinement of human beings be good, then I pray 
that the good confine themselves here, and save them- 
selves from the influence of the evil, while the latter 
finish their work of destruction. If the prisons are 
not a good, then I pray that they be changed or super- 
seded by shops of useful industry that shall really 
benefit the unfortunate, and thus, through them, ele- 
vate humanity to a higher standard of goodness. 

If you imagine that justice demands that you with- 
hold any good, or bestow any evil, on the transgressor 
of even God's pure law, you mistake her requirements, 
for the measure you mete is measured to you again ; 
and if justice bids you to inflict chastisement, it bids you 
be the means of inflicting a like on yourselves. Jus- 
tice to ourselves demands that we be merciful to others ; 
therefore justice and mercy are synonymous, and not, 
as the world suppose, conflicting principles. I hope I 
14* 



162 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MAM, 

am clear enough in this to be understood, for it is a, 
principle of much importance. 

As legislators, you have done wisely in establishing 
a reform school for boys, and may you go on, and on, 
until you shall have divested yourselves of every ves- 
tige of barbarism, and ushered in, in its fulness, in 
contradistinction to the kingdom of the sword, and 
its evils, which you now represent, the kingdom of 
heaven, of God, of love which knows no bondage, envy, 
enmity, retaliation or fear. Pardon me for making 
my petition thus lengthy. I have several times 
stopped, yet not finished, and now the promptings of my 
heart and understanding would make my appeal to 
you, more lengthy still, but for the trespassing on your 
time. Yet, long or short, if my position and reason- 
ing are not correct, teach me, I pray you, for I desire 
all truth, and bow to it as a lone reed to the wind ; 
but against error, you shall find me as steadfast as the 
rock. If sound, then receive these sentiments with 
the respect due to all truth, and bless the people with 
their fruits. 

You have my prayer ; heed it if you will ; but know 
you that a transgression of Grod's law, whether by 
numbers or individually, brings the transgressor into 
judgment, from which there is no appeal. 
Respectfully yours for all truth, 

James A. Clay. 



CHAPTEK VII. 

MAINE LAW.* 

In treating on the subject of the Maine Law and 
intemperance, or the moral law and temperance, it 
will be necessary for me to touch on general princi- 
ples, which, at first thought, may seem foreign, but, on 
more mature deliberation, and a searching for the 

* While in jail, and just previous to the New York election, 
which caused so much excitement about the Maine Law, I penned 
an article, from which this was taken, and sent it to the New 
York Tribune for publication. The Tribune was a strenuous 
advocate of the law. I then told them the law could not be en- 
forced in New York without bloodshed ; which, I presume, they 
have since learned, as have also other states who were clamor- 
ous for it. The editors took, from the middle of my manuscript, 
three or four pages, leaving my main arguments, on which they 
made long comments to refute, though they acknowledged my 
reasoning " logical and consistent," and endeavored to smut me 
by telling their readers they believed I was in jail for what the 
law-books called adultery. I then sent them the following few 
lines, which, I presume, they rejected, having never seen them 
in their paper : — 

Augusta, Me., Jail, Nov. 18, 1854. 

To the Editors of the Tribune, — 

Gentlemen, — I have just received your paper of the 8th inst., 
containing a part of my article on the Maine Law and reform. 
I regret that you could not afford room for the article entire ; for 
I think it would give a very different aspect to the affair, espec- 
ially to my position as a moral reformer. You know, gentlemen, 
we folks that move a little faster than the public mind, have often 
to endure reproach undeservedly; and my divided article, with 
your strictures and belief in regard to my crime, not only leaves 
me looking smutty, but also the cause of temperance and real 
reform, which was nearest my heart when I wrote the article. 

You announce me in jail for " adultery, or something of the 



164 MAINE LAW* 

root of intemperance, it will be understood that I am 
at home on my subject. And, without a searching for 
the cause, all efforts to reform will be as the lopping 
off the twigs, leaving the root, body and branch, to 
send forth their pestilence as long as the principle of 

kind." Excuse me, gentlemen, when I tell you my crime com* 
pares with adultery, as the Maine Law does with temperance. I 
freed myself of a charge of adultery, by proving the woman, 
with whom I was charged with committing the act, a virgin } 
and was then tried for lasciviousness. I could give ocular dem- 
onstration of my innocence in the first case, but, in the last, I 
could not, because the crime was that of the heart, and I was 
obliged to have my intentions judged by those who sat in judg- 
ment on me, and they found for me, what they could not help 
finding, the same judgments that rested on them in like circum* 
stances ; therefore their condemnations, and my tarry here, for 
their sins, not for my own. Now, gentlemen, if you will give 
your readers these facts, by publishing this article, you will free me 
from the stain left by your pen and type — unintentionally, I hope. 
You will thus leave us all not only looking better, but really better 
in the field of reform. And when you wish and can si afford " to 
give my articles entire, which you seem ready to admit are " logi- 
cal and consistent," I will be happy to discuss the subject of the 
" Maine Law," and temperance, or any other subject connected 
with law and reform, or the well being and doing of man. Until 
then, I must be content to confine myself to a little sheet I 
am now publishing, a newspaper called the " Eastern Light," 
which hails from " prison," the very place that Jesus said we 
should be thrown into, if we preached his gospel, for which, he 
also said, we should be "hated of all men." But when men 
know themselves, and the truth, we shall be loved of all men, as 
well as some women. This little sheet, please tell your readers, 
bears on its face a prison, containing a man ; myself, with a 
very long beard, and a little girl, my " angelic prison visitor," 
by my side, and whoever reads the paper, hungering and thirst- 
ing after righteousness, shall be filled. 

Very truly yours, for all good, 

James A. Clay. 

I also sent a short article on the same subject, to Messrs. 
Fowler and Wells, who were inviting their subscribers to " tell 
all they knew; " which was also, I presume, thrown under the 
table. I had also sent an article to the Circular published by 
the Oneida Association, which was erased to about one half, and 



MAINE LAW. 165 

life continues in the race. There are a few funda- 
mental principles which we ought to have understand- 
ingly established in our minds to successfully carry on 
any reform. Without these we may toil on and on, 
as the world of mankind have done, and still sink 
lower and lower in vice, crime, and misery, as public 
statistics show that much of civilized society is now 
doing. The true principles of Christianity must be 
respected in practice, ere the world can be raised from 
its depths of intemperance to the true conditions of 
manhood. The overcoming evil with good, a non- 
resistance of evil to save even our lives, is the Chris- 
tian mode, which is also philosophic and wise, and the 
only method by which evil can be overcome, except in 
total destruction. 

Men pay Christianity much honor, in word and ex- 
ternal show, while in their life — practical deeds — 

changed somewhat, and returned to me, saying they would pub- 
lish thus much if I wished. I had previously sought access to 
the columns of the " Pleasure Boat " in vain ; also to the columns 
of several of the more conservative periodicals at home and 
abroad. Thus foiled in my attempt to gain access to the Amer- 
ican press, so " free," I concluded it was not free to me; but a 
sold slave to the present falses of society, and, if I would speak 
through the press, I must do so on " my own hook," and at the 
peril of starvation. 

As the reader peruses this article, he will please note the ob- 
jectionable, and consider how much there is in it to exclude it 
from the columns of such a paper as the Tribune claims to be in 
the field of reform; and consider too how much opportunity 
there is, through the public press, to give vent to unpopular, 
though truthful thought. The fact is, the American press, with 
a very few honorable exceptions, is under a moneyed despotism, 
but little less destructive to human welfare than the despotisms 
of the Old World, which we hold in absolute horror. 

There is now published in Granville, Darke Co., Ohio, a 
monthly, entitled, " The Social Revolutionist," which may truly 
be said to be free. Send a dollar for a year's subscription, if you 
would learn to be wise, and, my word for it, you will not be dis- 
appointed. 



166 MAINE LAW. 

they put it far, far away, as unworthy of their consid- 
eration. The true principles are worthy of every one's 
practice, as well as precept, and are productive of good, 
whether Jesus taught them or not. But because many 
can see no good except through Jesus, I wish to show 
that .my principles, which I regard as natural, corre- 
spond with his. When I speak of the principles of 
Christianity, I do not mean those of Moses, David, 
Solomon, or Paul, or any other writer of the Bible, or 
any modern church, unless such corresponds with the 
fundamental principles. 

The instructions of Jesus were to live in obedience 
to the laws of God ; and obedience to the laws of man 
cannot be obedience to the laws of God, unless the 
two correspond with each other, not only in their general 
principles, but in their most minute ramifications. 
And, if God maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the 
good, and alike sendeth rain on the just and unjust, 
the laws of man, that do not correspond in alike ren- 
dering good unto all, cannot be of God, though they 
are claimed to be such by every church in the nation, 
and have the support of every person in and out of 
the church. And further, if the Bible, or Jesus him- 
self, teach a doctrine contradicting that which all na- 
ture teaches, of rendering good for evil, forgiving, 
condemning no one, but having charity for all, loving 
enemies, blessing them that curse us, doing good to 
them that hate us, turning the other cheek if smote on 
one, and at last, if need be, taking the cross and following 
to the place of execution, and quietly yielding up our 
lives, and, with our last parting breath, praying, "Father, 
forgive them," and thereby showing to the world that our 
life is with God, and that all fear of death is cast out 
by our love, which is made perfect ; — I say, if a doc- 
trine come contradicting this, then this or that cannot 



MAINE LAW. 167 

be of God ; for there can be no contradiction in him. 
Now I presume no one will have the boldness to 
deny that these are the principles of Jesus, and that 
he also taught that he was one with God the Father ; 
and I hope no one will have the hardihood to meet me 
with anything else contradicting this, saying it is also 
of God. 

This settled between us, we are agreed that Jesus, 
or his principles, is the reformer of the world ; and, 
having done this, we have left behind all statute law; 
for all such is founded on force, and not on a mild and 
gentle force either, but on a force of arms — a sword 
and gun, or life-destroying power, which Jesus truly 
said, shall perish by itself. Though not literally true 
that every one who takes the sword does perish by the 
sword, yet the sword is an evil, and all evil shall per- 
ish by its own kind. 

It cannot be truly said that the taking the law to 
suppress intemperance, or press reform, is not trans- 
gressing the injunction of Jesus, even if the law did 
not call into action the sword which lies behind ; for 
the law power is the sword power, though the sword 
may never be called into action, but remain to rust 
out in its sheath. It is said the law is a terror to 
evil-doers, but it cannot be unless it holds in reserve 
evil for evil-doers. A law rendering good for evil 
can be no terror, even to the most evil doer. Fear 
and terror, which the law excites, are themselves evils, 
which are to be overcome by a good law, or a law 
rendering good for evil. Humanity needs to be raised 
above fear, and will be by a wholesome law, and 
taught to do well, because such alone can bring hap- 
piness, which all so ardently desire. 

The statute law loses its moral power in the sword or 
force which lies behind, or is the real base of all 



168 MAINE LAW. 

statute law. And it would bring the people to the 
letter of the law, if they can ascertain what that let- 
ter is, right or wrong, moral or immoral. It is use- 
less to say the statute law is the moral law. The 
statute law may be moral in the degree the nation is 
so, but no nation on the globe comes up to nature's 
or God's law, which is the true standard of morality, 
nor can they ever do so until they put up the sword ; 
and rely on God's moral law of love to redeem them. 

Love, to the animated world, is what attraction is to 
the heavenly bodies. And the same confusion, de- 
struction or desolation, exists in animated nature with- 
out love, as would with the heavenly bodies without 
their law of attraction. Imagine Jupiter and Saturn, 
leaving their law of attraction, and arming themselves 
with pikes, and pursuing a straying planet to restore 
it to its proper position, and you have a like absurd- 
ity to the Christian man leaving his law of love, and turn- 
ing soldier to restore his straying brother to the paths 
of virtue. 

Again, the statute law cannot be depended upon 
without the soldiery, and the soldiery cannot survive 
without intemperance in some form, or a very low de- 
velopment of intellect, or a great degree of depend- 
ence ; one or all of these evils must exist with the stat- 
ute law and its soldiery. It is thought that the war 
which gave this nation a birth was a holy war, the 
cause of freedom was so just ; but, like all other evils, 
it had to be nourished by its own kind. Said a writer 
of a biography, at about the close of the war, who was 
in pursuit of a sufferer in a barracks, " I followed to 
the left, the lower rooms being filled with drunkenness, 
despair and blasphemy." As holy as was the cause, 
the soldiery, to carry it on, were steeped in drunken- 
ness in the greatest degree. The war was an evil, 



MAINE LAW. 169 

&nd, connected with it, were all other evils, more or 
less remote. And, as all evils are but links in the 
same chain, so are all goods like links in another 
chain. 

From whence come recruits to fill the ranks of the 
army and navy? Do the recruiting officers go into 
the temperate, quiet, rural neighborhoods for recruits, 
or into the cities, *and the very dens of infamy ? And 
where else should they go to find men so brutalized as 
to act well the part of a soldier, or human butcher ? 
And there, too, are connected other prominent feat- 
ures of evil, beside the sword and the distil, — extreme 
moneyed wealth and squalid poverty, excessive toil 
and great idleness, profligacy and want. 

Are not the sword and the distil alike evils, both 
to be shunned by temperate and Christian men, lest 
they be overcome by either ? Be assured, there is as 
great danger of evil coming from the sword as from 
the distil ; and any one need but visit the Crimea to 
be convinced of the fact. 

Napoleon is as good an example as the world affords 
of the power of evil to overcome itself, even when used 
to promote a good. There are but few, I presume, 
who know his history, but will acknowledge his motive, 
in the ultimate, to be good ; but his means to bring 
that good were evil ; therefore evil overtook him, as all 
evil must those who pursue it. Nor can we, in any way, 
pursue evil with evil, unless we forsake the established 
principles of Jesus. The two principles, good and 
evil, are just as separate throughout as life and death, 
and good can have no more need of evil to aid its 
cause than the sun has need of the moon to help 
warm the earth. And, if temperance be a good, it 
can have no need of the sword, or any other evil 
power, to promote it. Nor can it be promoted by the 
15 



170 MAINE LAW. 

sword power. All the good that may be expected to 
result from evil is to destroy itself that the good may 
have no need to contaminate itself with evil, when the 
evil is so deep-rooted that it cannot be reached with 
good. As a writer formerly expressed it, " Darkness 
be overcome with more gross darkness." 

Let us inquire, Why do men drink alcoholic liq- 
uors ? It is not because they have a natural appetite 
for them, but rather for the stimulant they afford. 
And why do men seek stimulants ? we are led to in- 
quire. It is for the want of the real invigorating life 
which is in Grod, or love and harmony. The true 
laws, which give real life,, are transgressed ; exhaust- 
ion and depression ensue ; and artificial stimulations 
are sought as a substitute. Distillation is continued 
because love is wanting. So is the traffic. Money- 
making is the object generally ; which desire would be 
overcome were love and harmony restored with the 
race. And when harmony is restored, the war power 
would also cease. Exhaustion, which makes a neces- 
sity for stimulation, comes of the want of love and 
harmony, and is shown in the every-day strife for 
money, as well as in the bloody conflict of war. The 
war power, the law power, and the moneyed power, 
are really the same or separate branches of the same 
great evil, which humanity, or Christianity, has to con- 
tend against, and neither can be of any service to pro- 
mote her cause. The law, then, is the very it to be 
overcome with intemperance, instead of being the 
means to promote temperance. The law can reach 
intemperance only with its own destructive power — 
overcome by destroying ; while the moral power, which 
is of God, overcomes all these evils by restoring. 
Death, which is the finale of all these evils, came by 
sin, and it may go as it came by sin in destruction, 



MAINE LAW. 171 

but life, which is the opposite, must come by the op- 
posite — by righteousness. We need not seek life, 
or reform, except by righteousness — by the opposite 
to what we wish to put away. We may be assured 
that all the good we would do, we must do without 
doing evil, or soliciting evil to aid us, else the good 
we would do will prove to be evil, though, in our 
zeal and blindness, we may follow it until it over- 
come and destroy us. This is a very simple philoso- 
phy, that ought to be understood by every boy before 
arriving at his teens, that it takes an opposite to 
overcome, though the would-be wise of all nations of 
earth seem to be blind to it. 

It is equally true and simple that ail goods are of 
one class, and all evils are of another class, and that 
they are incompatible with each other. Thus asso- 
ciated with monarchy are soldiery, war, prisons, gallows, 
voluptuousness, poverty, dependence, intemperance, pes- 
tilence, and death. So associated with freedom or 
independence is the opposite to all these evils, and as 
much of the former as is associated with the latter in 
our nation, just so much of the evils of the old govern- 
ment, from which we came, is retained in the new, of 
which we boast. This, at first thought, may be ques- 
tioned by the superficial observer; but the careful, dili- 
gent searcher after all truth will readily concede the 
truth of this position. 

We cannot enjoy freedom with monarchy, because 
one is the opposite to the other. Nor can we have 
true moral discipline with the soldiery, or peace with 
war. As I have said, as much of any of these evils 
as is fostered by government or the nation, just so 
much do we partake of the spirit of monarchy. It 
really matters but little to me whether the rule that is 
over me be a foreign monarch, who exercises such au- 



172 MAINE LAW. 

thority because his birth, station and wealth give him 
power ; or the rule be in my two next-door neighbors^ 
who rule because they haye two votes at the polls, and 
I only one. A rule that is not in myself is a foreign 
one, and may as well be in one head as a dozen, 
or across the Atlantic as across a mill-pond. And 
if the one across the Atlantic be more virtuous, wise, 
and benevolent, then it is the more to be desired. It 
is a ruse to talk about the freedom,, virtue and happi- 
ness, transmitted to us through our national govern- 
ments. Such do not exist, else we would not wit- 
ness the" slavery, war, vice, misery, discord, disease and 
suffering, we do on every hand. And we need not ask, 
of the law or governments whose very base is vice, the 
virtue of temperance. 

The reader is ready to ask, what shall we have for 
a government? Jesus taught the true principles of 
government, and gave his life to teach principles of 
eternal life that mankind in his day did not know, and 
do not now generally understand any better than at that 
time. 

A prohibitory liquor law, if it does not call inta 
action any military power, is a transgression of one of 
the attributes of the Deity (freedom of the will), which 
is equally productive of evil as intemperance, and is 
one great cause of intemperance. Bondage is as in- 
compatible with virtue as intemperance. As I have 
said, vices and virtues, evils and goods, are of sepa- 
rate and distinct classes, each having a being and 
growth as they are nourished by their own kind. We 
claim more blessings for America in the ratio that her 
institutions are more free, and those blessings* are only 
possessed as that freedom exists in fact. Thus the dis- 
parity between the north and south of the American 
Union* If three fifths of the American people were 



MAINE LAW. 173 

really temperate men, and they could pass a law that 
would be effectual in prohibiting the importation and 
distillation of spirituous liquors, without ever resorting 
to military operations, I should still be doubtful of the 
utility of such a law. But such a law is as far out 
of the power of the people as the kingdom of heaven 
is away from their hearts, and I shall sooner look for 
the latter than the former. 

The progress of temperance, thus far, has been 
through the means of education, or the moral influence, 
and whatever advance is made hereafter will be through 
the same means. What can a minority power do with 
the law ? Nothing ; and a majority can only destroy 
the weaker, not save. The Washingtonian movement, 
so called, owes all of its success to the moral influence, 
and its final failure to the " legal suasion," or oppo- 
site principle, which it would finally adopt, The world 
has not on record so salutary a movement for reform 
as the uncorrupted Washingtonian movement. 

With what indignation would a law be received 
with these so-called temperance men, requiring them 
to be " temperate in all things " ! For instance, pro- 
hibiting the sale of tobacco, which is quite as univer- 
sally admitted to be an evil, though deemed of less 
magnitude. Would not the ire of these American 
freemen be roused, kindling almost an unquenchable 
flame in resistance ? And do they think those who wish 
for alcoholic stimulus so much unlike themselves that 
no such spirit is begot? They have to look to a 
higher development than now pervades a tithe of the 
American people for a spirit so submissive that it does 
not spurn such indignities, Only among those who 
are temperate in all things will they find such, and 
those have no need of Maine laws to make them walk 
15* 



174 MAINE LAW. 

uprightly? nor should they hare such to prevent them 
from doing so. 

I would as soon ask a law regulating the dietetic 
habits of marr, cutting off all the more gross food and 
condiments used by him. In a word, I would as soon 
ask that the gospel be preached or enforced on the people 
by the law, and have the ministry superseded at once, 
and the kingdom of heaven ushered into existence 
without delay. How absurd does this seem ! yet no 
more so than to resort to law to promote the cause 
of temperance. If the law be the reformer, the gos- 
pel is not; and if the gospel be it, the law is not* 
Law and gospel, military and moral, do not mix. The 
gospel that would rest on the law is no longer the 
gospeh The moral that would rest on the sword is nc 
longer moral, but partakes of the vilest immoralities. 
So the law w T hich is founded on the gospel, no longer 
holds the sword, but relies on its own innate goodness 
and moral power, and leaves the grossly evil free ta 
overcome itself by its own destruction. Ere we achieve 
the reform we desire, these principles must be sepa- 
rated, the good from the evil, and then the Maine law 
will be placed on the left ; and, in the shadow of its 
own and other evils, it will be as black with infamy as 
the rum traffic now is. 

What hope have we for temperance reform from a 
government, one branch of which permits importation, 
and is partially supported by such, and the other branch 
acknowledges the right to flood the land with distilled 
liquors, and is itself a retailer, and draws support from 
the same source, though she does impose fines and 
prisons on those who buy and sell ? 

If the rumseller and drinker have no power in 
themselves to check their bad habits, and there be no 
power in the good to draw them from their vice, then 



MAINE LAW. 175 

Unloose the bonds that bind others to them, and let 
them go their downward road to ruin, rather than 
involve a whole community by a vain effort to save. 

Whatever may be the consequence of such a course, 
it is the best that can be done. None will have or 
can have imposed on them a higher law than that of 
their own love, be that salvation or destruction. Our 
law, if it be, and we would have it continue to be, that 
of salvation, must leave others free to accept or reject, 
else it will not only prove to be destruction to them, 
but to ourselves also. Understand; enmity and re- 
venge toward others is not love, nor can it be said of 
those following such, that they are obeying their law of 
love. Love would lead us to restrain from evil, but 
never with evil ; it would use its own power, which is 
to attract, win, save, restore ; while the law with 
one hand rudely grasps that which is conceived to be 
behind, and just as rudely handles that which has 
really gone before ; always destroying, and never for a 
moment lending a helping hand to save. 

The manufacture and vending of quack medicines 
as loudly calls for legislation, if legislation be the 
remedy, as does the liquor distillation and traffic. The 
thousands who are robbed of their hard-earned wealth, 
and their little remnant of health, by the enticing ad- 
vertisements of quacks, are quite as worthy of pro- 
tection from robbery and poisoning, as are the inebri- 
ated. The one is poisoned, well knowing the fact, 
while the other is likewise poisoned, thinking all the 
while of regaining wasted health and strength. The 
two trades bear the relation to each other that the 
serpent in the grass does to the serpent on the barren 
plain. Were it in my power, with a dash of the pen, 
to annihilate alcoholic drinks, quack medicines, or 
tobacco, I would do so to either of the two latter before 



176 MAINE LAW. 

the former, I candidly entertain the opinion that by 
so doing I would render to humanity the greatest 
service. 

Who sees the necessity of enacting, and the possi- 
bility of enforcing, a law prohibiting the trade in to- 
bacco and poisoning medicines, which are so univer- 
sally used? These are both evils, and the time is 
coming when they are to be removed as well as alcohol ; 
and the same means that will remove the latter will 
the former. Had we a Napoleon to rule, whose will 
was the law, which would be obeyed, we would only 
have to right him on this subject, and then the multi- 
tude would follow. But such is not the case ; the law 
rests with the majority we say, but not with the inter- 
nal desires of them, for the internal desires of the 
majority are favorable to universal peace, freedom, 
love, harmony, and happiness. The law is an entail- 
ment on humanity from former dark and despotic ages, 
which yoke of bondage we are throwing off step by 
step as we can. 

What would the law-reformer do for a law to pro- 
tect our sons from the evil influences of tobacco, and 
our daughters from the vile nostrums that flood the 
civilized world as panaceas and restoratives ? The peo- 
ple must be educated up to a majority, as they have 
been or must be on the subject of alcoholic drinks, be- 
fore we can have such a law. The time was when 
alcohol was so universally used that it was no dis- 
grace for the " good parson " even to red his nose, 
sipping from the brandy goblet. And the same means 
which have changed public sentiment on this must 
change it on the subject of tobacco and drugs. 
The people must be educated, I have said, up to a ma- 
jority ; and if it can be done thus far, may it not be 
done further, and the entire reformation accomplished 



MAINE LAW. 177 

by the same means? Certainly, else it may not be 
accomplished at all, and more than a remnant of the 
evil will remain, as that of alcohol now does. I have 
faith in saving humanity from the evils of tobacco and 
drugs, and many more pernicious things, by education 
and the law of love or moral law. First convince the 
understanding, and then throw around the wanderer 
such moral influences as shall enable him to resist the 
immoral ones, and we have him not only secure from 
temptation, but winning others to the paths of virtue 
and happiness. 

I have said thus much, adding " line upon line," 
to show the fallacy of the Maine laws, or other laws 
of evil to overcome evil, when it would seem that not 
a word ought to be wanting to convince intelligent 
beings that good alone can overcome evil ; yet my 
reader may set this all down as theory, and demand 
more practical demonstration of the facts of the 
matter, which we have in the workings of the Maine 
law. The newspaper paragraphs tell us that in- 
temperance is almost or quite annihilated, and that 
crime is so diminished that the jails of Maine are 
without tenants, and to let; but what are the facts 
which the jail calendar tells us? I am now in jail, 
answering the penalty of the law (not the transgres- 
sion of the liquor law, but for living in obedience to 
a higher law than it is the fortune or misfortune of the 
Maine judiciary to understand), and have a good oppor- 
tunity to know the falsity of such statements. I have 
been here two months yesterday (Oct. 28th), and since 
I came twelve have been committed for drunkenness, 
and some half dozen for dealing in the prohibited arti- 
cle ; one for selling beer ; another, a poor negro, is 
serving out his time, who, doubtless, has a score or 
more rivals in this city, the capital of Maine. I am 



178 MAINE LAW. 

told by one who I think knows, that there are forty 
places in this little city where liquors could be obtained 
by those who wanted, and twenty-six names were 
readily given from memory* Another tells me there 
are sixty places, instead of forty. The truth is, many 
a private house has become a dram-shop. I am told that 
a similar state exists in a neighboring country village; 
and myself am knowing to its being sold without re- 
serve at country taverns, a little further away. The 
price is enhanced and the profit great, and the venders 
run proportionate risks. Since I have been here, — two 
months, — there have been from fifteen to thirty prison- 
ers confined for the different crimes, though many of 
them, doubtless, more worthy of liberty than very many 
at large. 

I have been searching the criminal calendar of this 
house of defamation for the last ten years, and find no 
abatement, but rather an increase, since the Maine law 
came in vogue. In the year 1844, the whole number 
of commitments were 69 : for drunkenness 12 ; for 
selling contrary to law 1. In 1845, there were 82 — 
14 — 0; in 1846, 83 — 16 — 4; 1847,48—17—0; 
1848, 77 — 25 — 1 ; 1849, 150 — 28 — 5 ; 1850, 122 
_11_7 ; 1851,132 — 28 — 12; 1852,73—17 — 
16 ; 1853, 91 — 22 — 7 ; 1854, 125 — 48 — 14. The 
last year, 1854, includes ten months only. Adding at 
the same ratio for the other two months, it will give 
as many commitments as in any previous year, and 
more than any other but one, and double that of some ; 
and an average of the last four years, three and a half 
of which are since the enactment of the law, there is an 
increase of more than thirty per cent. This increase 
must be much greater than the increase of population ; 
therefore we must conclude that crime is not being 
lessened since the enactment of the law. 



MAINE LAW. 179 

This calendar by no means gives all the commit- 
ments for drunkenness. On the fourth of July last, 
five were committed, only one of which appears on 
record ; the remainder having been discharged, without 
formal trial, after a confinement of twelve or twenty- 
four hours. 

The Maine law advocates say, the commitments are 
increased by the greater vigilance of the public func- 
tionaries. This may be true, and to balance this there 
is greater caution on the part of those who drink to 
intoxication, lest they fall into the snares. I am ready 
to admit that there is less drunkenness in the streets 
than there has been at some former periods ; but this 
is only an external view of the subject. We must 
look within doors, and take more than a superficial 
view of the subject to learn the true state of intem- 
perance. I am fully persuaded that dram-drinking 
on the whole has not lessened materially since the 
enactment of the law, and that tobacco-using has very 
much increased. Suppose there were a law enacted 
that pipes, tobacco and cigars, should no longer be of 
lawful traffic, and imprisonment be imposed on those 
who smoke and chew, would the evil be remedied ? 
By no means ; though one might walk the streets with 
less annoyance from quids, spittle and smoke, -our 
homes would be more than ever infected. I recently 
asked a zealous Maine-law friend to point me to the 
reformation of one inebriate, through the influence of 
the law, which had been in being some three or four 
years, and on which so many thousands and so much 
time had been lavished, and he candidly acknowl- 
edged to me that Ke knew not one. It would be 
strange that there were no reformations within the 
time ; but if there is one, it has other cause than the 
law. And now what hope have we in the future 



180 OF THE CONSTITUTIONS. 

from a law that has done so little in the past ? None ; 
our only well-grounded hope is in getting rid of the 
law, it being one species of evil which is fostered by 
and fosters intemperance. Not one reformation through 
the means of the law ; no good achieved. And can it 
be truly said, that no harm has been done ? Can the 
law stand on a poise between good and evil, and do 
none of either? Is it no harm that the people are 
taxed by thousands and tens of thousands, and that the 
laborer must toil and spend his energies to sustain a 
law that only destroys ? 

Who can calculate the sum of moral power which 
has been sacrificed in consequence of the law — which 
can never compensate for the sacrificing of the moral 
power of one human being? Yet all Christendom has 
bowed to this Baal, and acknowledged it greater than 
God himself. Will they remain on that bended knee, 
or will they rise, and, in the dignity of manhood, 
trust in the living God, who is love ? 



OF THE CONSTITUTIONS. 

The Marriage Law or Maine, and her Constitu- 
tion, and the Constitution of the United States 
of America. — The constitution of the State of Maine, 
and, I presume, all other states, and that of the 
United States, guarantees to the people free religious 
toleration. The marriage institution is regarded by all 
sects as a religious ordinance, which is acceded to by the 
state governments by permitting the ministers to " sol- 
emnize the bonds." (How full of meaning, " solemnize the 
bonds " ! ) 

Now, may I not be permitted to enjoy the Chris- 
tian religion, in fact, which is love, free and universal, 



OF THE CONSTITUTIONS. 181 

and extend it to the sexual relations, as other relig- 
ious sects have, only without "bonds"? They want 
love in " bonds, " I want the same in freedom. They 
want theirs in slavery and spiritual poverty. I want 
mine in freedom and spiritual wealth. They want to 
restrict theirs to their own fireside. I want to extend 
mine wherever and to whatever is pure and holy. 

This religion is as much more pure and holy as it is 
more free and loving, and will compare more favora- 
bly with the religions so popular, than the insti- 
tutions of the north will compare with the blackest or 
vilest slavery of the world. 

The popular religion, popular marriage, and popular 
slavery of the south, are all only parts of the same 
system. The popular religion, marriage and wages^ 
slavery of the north, are only a slight amelioration of 
the same systems. The true wealth and prosperity, 
which are virtue and health in freedom of love, will as 
much more favorably compare^ with the present, as 
does now the north with the south, in regard to the 
wealth of dollars and cents. A religion that is of 
God will be universal, for God is a universal spirit, 
and where the spirit of God is, there is freedom, lib- 
erty and union, harmony, health and happiness ; and, 
in the absence of that spirit, the reverse is sure to fol- 
low, with its consequent results. The one is life ever- 
lasting; the other is death just as lasting to the indi- 
vidual. I said, the marriage institution was a relig- 
ious ordinance, which was guaranteed free from states' 
and United States' interference by their constitutions ; 
yet the state, in contradiction to its own constitution, 
follows the precedence of its mother, the United States, 
in regard to her declaration of rights, and constitution, 
and slavery, and imposes a marriage law, which is in- 
fringing on that religious rite. 
16 



182 OF THE CONSTITUTIONS. 

Am I told that the religious churches or sects ask 
this law of marriage ? I answer, grant it to them if 
you and they please ; but I am a sect all alone to my- 
self, if no one else sees it proper to join me, that have 
no need of such a law, and wish it not imposed on me. 

Am I told this is a civil as well as a religious ordi- 
nance, and that the church shakes hands with the state, 
and that they join for their mutual protection ? I answer 
by asking, does not the constitution expressly forbid the 
union of the church with the state ; that the latter shall 
not impose any form of religion ; and, more than that, 
does it not guarantee protection to each and every in- 
dividual in their religious observances, according to 
the dictates of their own consciences ? 

If this is not a religious ordinance properly, but one 
that is ceded to the church for convenience, then it 
loses its divinity altogether, and is placed on a level 
with all other human laws. I never heard a law- 
loving subject that did not claim its origin to be divine, 
and the gospel-loving certainly will not do less. It is 
on the ground of its divinity alone that I claim its 
sanctity from the pollution of human governments. 

Now, my candid reader, do you see the dilemma ? 
The constitution declares free religious toleration. The 
church declares the marriage institution to be a relig- 
ious rite. The state concedes that it is so by permit- 
ting the clergy universally to perform the ceremony 
of making the " bonds" And then the state enacts 
laws in regard to marriage, and imposes them on me, 
restricting my religious privileges, and throws me into 
prison for living truthfully, uprightly, virtuously, in 
the spirit of Christianity, and not contrary to the 
spirit of the constitution of the state, or the United 
States. 

This week ended, and I shall have expended forty 



OF CRIME. 183 

days in jail, on a term of six months, and I am fear- 
ful that I shall think that American freedom is not 
what it is " cracked up to be," and shall have to try 
Queen Vic's dominions for security from northern op- 
pression, as the black man does from southern. 

The constitutions not only allow free religious tol- 
eration, but guarantee protection. Now my religion 
is that which does not ask, seek, or expect, any aid 
or protection, nor has it need of any, from any earthly 
governments, except that which every good man, woman 
and child have in their own hearts. It only asks of 
other governments " hands off; " our cause is a holy 
one, and you must not think to prostitute it to your 
baseness. Let others do their own work of destruc- 
tion while they must ; while we preach the gospel 
of salvation in our lives to those who can compre- 
hend it. 

I call this my religion. It is no more mine than 
every one's who can comprehend it. It is a univer- 
sal religion, so far as it is embraced universally. It 
is God's, or Christ's, or yours, my reader, if you really 
wish it. I do not wish to impose it on you or any one 
else. If you have a better, live it, and it will make 
you happier, and I shall be very glad indeed ; but, 
should you think this best, so far as possible for me to 
do, I will teach you. without money or price. Only 
give your heart and life to the work, and me your 
hand, and we will be one with Christ, as he is with 
the Father. 



OF CRIME. 



What is crime? "An unlawful or wicked act," 
says Webster. A simple question, readily answered, 
and plainly understood, one would suppose at first 



184 OF CRIME. 

thought; but, when we consider that much wicked- 
ness is lawful, and righteousness unlawful, and that 
there are various opinions of what is wickedness and 
what is righteousness, we need a moment's further 
consideration to determine what really constitutes 
crime. 

Each statute book has its code of laws, to transgress 
which constitutes its crime ; and, if we take those of 
different countries and periods, we would scarcely find 
an act of inhumanity but has been or is lawful and 
honorable, or an act of humanity which escapes rep- 
robation and criminality. It was treason, a flagrant 
crime by England's law, that our fathers declared and 
endeavored to realize " the unalienable rights of man." 
It is a crime equally reprobated by the law of a large 
section of our country, that one avail himself of the 
same " self-evident " right ; though it be no crime to 
shoot a musket-ball through one who dared to walk 
away on his own legs. 

In passing from the New England to the Middle, 
and from thence to the Southern States, in each per- 
forming the same act, we should pass from the praise- 
worthy, honorable, lawful, to the disgraceful and crim- , 
inal. The crossing of a state's line, but one pace dis- 
tant, to commit an act, may involve one in criminal- 
ity, or relieve him of a public reprobation justly de- 
served. 

An act which one would commit to-day but for the 
penalty of statute law, he may with impunity on 
the morrow, the law having been repealed, or vice 
versa. Two acts, precisely the same in fact ; the one, 
having been committed under the guise of law, is 
deemed respectable, ay, honorable ; while the other, 
without being clothed in such guise, is a state's prison 
offence. 



OF CRIME. 185 

Since there is such a diversity in public opinion and 
Statute law in regard to what is crime, we must look 
elsewhere for a reliable standard of law by which to 
judge of what constitutes criminality. Americans 
cannot take England's law as a standard, or Britain's 
sons Russian law, or a New Englander a southerner's 
law, or a Christian man either. Nor can one of either 
country rely steadfastly on its own code of statute 
laws, else there would be no necessity of annual con- 
ventions to make, change and repeal laws, And where 
else shall we look for the true standard, since the con- 
stitutions of all governments fail to furnish us one ? 
It is to nature, to humanity, to God, who is the great 
Lawgiver, and whose law is love, an internal principle 
of good, contrary to external laws of evil, and is writ- 
ten in every creature which lives, which to obey is no 
crime, though statute laws may regard it as a great 
one. It is a crime with the most civilized or enlight- 
ened governments of earth to obey this law of love 
without first transgressing its counterpart, freedom, 
which is quite as essential to the prosperity of soci- 
ety, and the overcoming real crime. The existence of 
all present governments depends upon the supplanting 
of the true laws of universal love and individual free- 
dom by their laws of sectional strife and universal dis- 
cord. The real crime is a transgression of nature's 
or God's law, in which criminality every government 
of earth is involved, as well as all subjects of such 
governments who voluntarily participate. Govern- 
ments claiming the prerogative to make a standard by 
which to judge of crime, themselves of all others the 
deepest in crime. To make this the most apparent, 
we must view governments in the distance. Afar off 
we can discover the mote in our brother's eye, though 
we do not realize the beam in our own. We do not 
16* 



186 dtf crimh, 

fail to know that governments were the most perfect 
despotisms, trampling on every law of God, or human- 
ity, sacrificing human life, and crushing human lib- 
erty, committing the most atrocious crimes against 
nature, the only true standard, to save its own unnat- 
ural self. How very numerous are the crimes com- 
mitted by our own boasted government to suppress the 
freedom of humanity, sitting its own polluted self on 
the judgment-seat to pass sentence as criminals on 
those who choose to obey the law of God rather than 
her mandates of evil ! 

The " constitution " of man is paramount to the 
constitution of the United States, or any other states, 
and it is a less real crime to trample in the dust every 
sentence of the latter document, than that they should 
trample as they do on many — on one — of man's natural, 
constitutional rights. The law written by the finger 
of the Deity in every creature which lives is a purer 
standard by which to judge of crime than was ever 
written, or can be written, in the statute books of na- 
tions. So far are governments from a standard by 
which to judge of crime that they are the instigators 
of crime, manufacturing it in imagination, and then 
committing real crime to suppress that which was no 
crime by nature, the pure standard, but only so by 
their false one. And they, too, as governments, by de- 
priving man of his natural rights, force him to com- 
mit crime, and then unwisely commit another crime to 
overcome one already committed. 

An act against nature or humanity, constituting the 
real crime, would not relieve governments of the crim- 
inality of their butcheries under any pretext what- 
ever. And they would only be justifiable in their 
present doings by creating a " bran-new " philosophy 
that crime is lessened by committing crime. 



OF CRIME. 187 

There could be no crime of treason, which may only 
be an act of common humanity, without a law con- 
trary to humanity. JSTor would there be a crime of 
fornication or adultery without an external marriage 
law contrary to the true internal universal law of love 
and freedom. The act which the statute law terms the 
crime of fornication may be the purest and holiest 
compliance with nature's or God's law, but is made 
criminal by the statute law for the want of conform- 
ity to the form of statute law. The law of trespass, 
making it a crime for man to enter upon the public 
domain to provide himself, by his own industry, with 
bread, could not be without the common law of na- 
tions withholding from man his universal right to the 
soil. 

There may be other crimes against nature or hu- 
manity, analogous to these, which are in no wise les- 
sened by the penalties of statute laws, but rather 
increased and legalized, and not regarded by such laws 
as crimes, though all the evil consequences of nature's 
violated law follow. War-making, the king of crimes 
against nature, reaps her laurels from governments 
who claim the prerogative to chastise crime. God 
being the Lawgiver, and his law the law by which 
to judge of crime, it is he also, or his laws, which 
should chastise the criminal, and they who will leave 
the work to such will find a sufficiency of power and 
wisdom to do it well and wisely. God does not write 
the law in one, and the penalty for its violation in an- 
other unlike one ; and I doubt if it can truly be said 
that he has written the penalty in another of the same, 
or any chastisement that ought to be regarded as a 
penalty. God is love, and all that proceeds there- 
from is to fulfil the purest law of love and harmony, 
which should not be regarded as an evil ultimately, but 



188 THE THREE PROFESSION AND TliElil NOSTRUMS* 

only a seeming evil of the present, because we are 
evil. The law of freedom inviolate, and the decidedly 
vicious would become their own destroyers, which is 
far more wise than that others, good or evil, should 
exercise a law of evil over them. God having written 
his law in each individual being, it can be no real 
crime to fulfil it ; but rather a crime not to do so, or 
transgress it. The fulfilling the law by one, cannot in 
any manner involve a second in the transgression of 
the like true law written in them ; for the law of free- 
dom would allow all others to follow their true laws, 
and such only as were in love and harmony would be 
drawn together. 

The exercising of an evil law by one, or any col- 
lective number, over any other one or collective num- 
ber, cannot be truly said to be fulfilling the law of love 
or freedom, or the law of God, therefore is a trans- 
gression of that law, and a real crime, though all na- 
tions of earth are deeply involved in it. This being a 
truth, which no enlightened sane man will undertake 
to controvert, why should I blush to fulfil or obey the 
law of Grod written in my being, notwithstanding the 
prison, grape and canister of nations, and the frown 
and anathemas of their coadjutors, the church ? 



THE THREE PROFESSIONS AND THEIR NOSTRUMS. 

The lawyer, with the law and its penalties, the 
physician, with his drugs and die-stuffs, and the cler- 
gyman, with the Bible and its complicated doctrines, are 
all much alike, very pernicious. I say they are all 
so ; they are to the extent they rely on their respec- 



THE THREE PROFESSIONS AND THEIR NOSTRUMS. 189 

tive principles, or on each other, for a remedy for the 
evils which they profess to obviate. 

The practice of each is founded on a belief in the 
perpetuation of evil in the present sphere, and it is 
sad to say, each perpetuates the evil it pretends to 
remedy. In fact, there is not elsewhere extant so 
formidable obstacles in the way of reformation and re- 
generation, as the three professions present to us. 
There is a growth of humanity within the pale of 
each profession that cannot be said to be of the pro- 
fessions ; but the saying, as hard as it is, is true, that 
nowhere else is there so formidable an obstacle to the 
true laws as the laws professing to be true ; or, is 
there so formidable an obstacle to health as the pro- 
fession and nostrums pretending to give health ; or so 
formidable an enemy to Chrisitanity as the church 
professing to be of Christ. The wise lawyer does not 
himself engage in suits at law, or the wise physician 
swallow nostrums, or the wise clergyman take to him- 
self the evil forebodings of a future hell. If either 
administers to others, neither swallows the vile com- 
pounds himself. Each fraternity is dependent up- 
on the perpetuation of each system of ignorance ; and 
the trio are dependent upon each other, by suppressing 
the rising desire of the mass for truth in all matters 
pertaining to law, health and morals. And the money 
system really underlies all to perpetuate these evils ; 
but for which all lawyers, doctors and ministers, who 
are tolerably upright and enlightened in their several 
professions, would each denounce their teachings and 
doings as a cheat and humbug. Make the moneyed 
interest of the client identical with the lawyer, and that 
of the patient with the physician, and that of the lay- 
man with the priest, and very shortly the three pro- 
fessions would get their just deserts, annihilation. Now 



190 THE THREE PROFESSIONS AND THEIR NOSTRUMS. 

the lawyer lives by the quarrels of the people, the physi- 
cian by their diseases, and the clergyman by their ignor- 
ance ; therefore each is really interested in the perpetu- 
ation of the evils, which, should they obviate, they 
would (they fear) bring the evil of want on themselves; 
but would really bring the blessing of labor and equal- 
ity, which, though they think would be lowering them, 
would be raising them in the scale of humanity. 

If either of the three professions had a foundation 
in truth, and did its work wisely, the other two would 
be obsolete, or not wanted. If men were taught to 
fulfil the true universal law of love and harmony, the 
physical and the moral law would both also be fulfilled ; 
therefore, the physician and the clergyman would not 
be wanted. Or, if men fulfilled the physical law of 
their own beings, the universal law of love and har- 
mony, and the moral and divine law, would also be 
fulfilled. Or, if they fulfilled the moral and divine law 
the universal law of love and harmony, and the phys- 
ical law of health, would also be obeyed. So, as I have 
said, if either one of the three professions had a being 
in truth, man would be reconciled to his brother man, 
would be healed and moralized or Christianized, all 
under one, and the world would be redeemed from its 
quarrels, its disease, and its hell. Such a work is to 
be done without the law and its swords and penalties, 
the physician and his lancet and pills, or the cler- 
gyman and his Bible and future hell, or in spite of 
either or all. These three systems will do their one 
work of destruction ; while another, which may be 
called Christianity, or obedience to the natural law, or 
that of God, or of love and harmony, will do its work 
of salvation. 

Does the world want further proof of these asser- 
tions? The numerous and contradictory codes of laws 



MY PRISON REFLECTIONS. 191 

extant, and their frequent change, and the many modes 
of medication contradicting each other, and the nu- 
merous and contradictory religious sects, are each of. 
themselves sufficient evidence in condemnation of the 
respective professions. 

Understand me ; I do not abjure the wise law which 
would overcome evil with good, but rather that which 
does the like of murder to overcome murderers. Nor 
do I abjure a wise mode of practice to insure health, 
but that which heeds not the cause of disease, and 
bleeds, blisters and drugs, to restore wasted health. 
Nor have I aught to say against the ministry of hu- 
manity, or true Christianity, but against that which 
only looks to a future sphere for redemption from 
the ills which beset us. The professions which would 
teach the law of love or kindness, and the true phys- 
ical and spiritual laws to restore us to harmony, health 
and happiness, I would honor and respect; and what- 
ever I would say against such would only blacken my 
cause. 



MY PRISON REFLECTIONS. 

What availeth me the declaration of our fathers to 
the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, 
since my life is trampled on, my liberty is to live 
within these prison walls, and my happiness I must 
pursue, as others have and do pursue, though they find 
it not? Tell me ! Tell me!! What are my natural 
inalienable rights ? What my right to worship God 
after the dictates of my own conscience ? May I not 
w T orship the God in man, in woman, the temples of the 
living God ? Must I waste my manhood, blot out the 
God within me, who is love, and leads me to love all 



192 MY PRISON REFLECTIONS. 

that is noble, and become a senseless idolator, and 
worship beneath yonder spire an " unknown god " ? 

Have I nothing, not even my person, that is sacred- 
ly my own? Nothing that may not be ravished and 
torn from me in this " the land of the free " ? My 
home, my sacred home, has been entered, my family, 
bound to me by the holiest ties, have been scattered 
wide ; I have been arraigned at the courts, my pock- 
ets have been picked of the savings of frugality and 
industry, and I have endured long, long months of 
imprisonment in this jail; and for what? Who can 
answer ? What have I done ? Whom have I offended 
that I should remain here ? Do I hear the response, 
" You have transgressed the law " ? What law ? I ask. 
What law? Whose law? My country's law? Can 
this be my country, and make prisons for her sons 
because they live obedient to the Divine law ? Must 
I live where God may not live in man ? God forbids 
that I should call less than the world " my country, " 
or that I should obey other laws than his ; and obey I 
must, though they erect a cross as they have a gallows 
at yonder four corners, or revive the stake and fagot, 
and rekindle the fires, or entomb my body perpetually , 
in these loneliest cells. The marriage law have I trans- 
gressed? Why should I not? It bids me love one 
alone, and steel my heart to all other ties of affection. 
It would have me circumscribe my soul within the limit 
of a nutshell, and bury myself there, though I be 
blessed with a love for all of God's creatures. Should 
I not rather live in obedience to the requirements of 
the God within me, who gives me eternal life, than 
obey the law that has nothing but death to give ? I 
have withstood public reproach and scandal, and have 
endured a prison life in defence of truth and goodness, 
and am as ready to try the realities of death in de- 



WHAT SHALL I TELL THEM? 193 

fence of the same, if need be. I choose to die a truth, 
rather than live a lie. Then, if it must be so, steep the 
hemlock, prepare the stake and fagots ; raise the cross, 
plait the crown of thorns ; or, if you choose the more 
refined means to torture me into submission, then keep 
me here in this prison. While not under restraint to 
prevent me, I must fulfil the law of love, which is 
written in every fibre of my constitution. 

Death! What is it compared with a life of such 
discord and strife as are witnessed at every point ? 
If my life and example may not serve in some meas- 
ure to overcome this, then welcome " the king of ter- 
rors," and let my spirit speed to the land of peace ! 



WHAT SHALL I TELL THEM ? 

The little girls and boys, who visit me frequently, 
ask me what I am in jail for, and I wish to know 
what truthful answer I may give them. If I tell 
them it is for the sins of the people, will they under- 
stand me without further explanation ? If I tell them 
I loved others than those the law called my own, will 
they then understand it is a sin to love? Are not 
these little children taught from their Testament that 
they should love all ? Shall I tell them the truth, 
that the people who make, enforce and respect, the 
law, are in sin, in gross darkness, and do not love except 
viciously, and that they judged I had done so ; therefore, 
condemned me with their own condemnation, and im- 
prisoned me for their sins ? Will such an answer satisfy 
these young, truthful minds ? Will they not seek further 
explanation ? May I not tell them the whole truth ? 
What it is to love, what virtue, and what vice? 
Nothing short of such an explanation will save them, 

17 



194 WHAT SHALL I TELL THEM? 

sooner or later, from falling into an abyss that the race 
almost is engulfed in. Virtue checked, and vice un- 
seen, they will be almost sure to fall into the latter 
when too late to save them a 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WHY I REJECT THE BIBLE. 

The reason why I reject the Bible is, I teach tem- 
perance ; and am told Paul taught Timothy it was 
good to take a little wine for the stomach's sake, and 
his often infirmities. I teach non-resistance of evil ; 
and am told that Jesus used a scourge of small cords, 
thereby approving physical force. I teach that the 
sword and its power is productive of evil only ; and 
am told, to rebut, that Jesus commanded his disciples 
to sell their coats, and buy one. I teach that God is 
love, and has no power to destroy ; and am told, from 
the Bible, that he is a jealous God — - a consuming 
fire — and a man of war, and that he was with the 
armies of old, and helped to carry on their nefarious 
butcheries. I teach that he and his laws are ever the 
same ; and am told that he gave a code of laws by 
Moses of " Eye for eye," and one by Jesus of " Resist 
not evil." I tell the people that the United States 
government, with its war-making, slave-holding, and 
evil-for-evil-rendering laws, are not morally binding 
on me ; and am answered, as from divine authority, 
" The powers that be are ordained of God." When I 
repudiate the gallows as barbarous, I would be silenced 
by " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his 
blood be shed." I teach that the unwise have suffi- 
cient punishment in their unwisdom, without further 
chastisement from any one else; and am met with 
u A rod for the fool's back." I teach that the child 



196 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC, 

and youth should be trained by kindness ; and am tolcf^ 
as from the fount of wisdom, " Spare the rod r and 
spoil the child." I teach of a state of society in whick 
there shall be no suffering from poverty ; and am told y 
" The poor ye always have with you." I repudiate 
the money system ;. and am. told Jesus recognized it as 
right, by paying tribute. I repudiate th« marriage 
law that binds uncongenial, inharmonious, unloving; 
ones together y while it separates those who are suited 
to each other ;. and am told that Jesus respected the? 
marriage ceremony and wine-bibbing, by being pres- 
ent at the marriage-feast,, and making wine. I repu- 
diate the use and abuse of animals ;. and am told they 
were all made for the use of man. I repudiate flesh- 
eating ; and am told that God permitted it in olden 
time, and, later, that he commanded Peter to slay and 
eat of all manner of living, creeping things. I abhor 
the slavery and servitude that one part of the race 
requires of the other ; and am met with a quotation 
from Paul, " Servants, submit to your masters." 

I advocate woman's equal rights with man in mat- 
ters pertaining to government ; and am told that women 
should u hear from their husbands at home." I teach 
that the law of evil for evil perpetuates evil * and am 
told, " The law for the lawless." I teach that God is 
the Creator of all good, and can take no part in de- 
struction, which is evil, or the consequence of evil ; and 
have quoted to me, "I create good and evil." 

I teach obedience to natural laws to redeem woman 
from the suffering in childbirth ; and am told, Eve 
sinned, and the curse is perpetual. I teach purity,, 
perfection, salvation from all sin ; and am told, " No 
man liveth and sinneth not," though, the next moment,. 
I may have repeated to me,. " Be ye, therefore,, per- 
fect." 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 197 

I teach that purity of diet would do much to re- 
deem the race from their sins ; and am told, " It is not 
that which goeth into the mouth which defileth a man, 
but that which cometh out." I could fill quite a 
pamphlet with quotations from the Bible, defending 
the wrong, and contradicting itself. 

Said Jesus, " Thaw hast heard that it hath been 
said, in old time, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth ; but I say unto you, resist not evil." To my 
understanding, this language of Jesus was as much as 
denying the truthfulness or utility of the old saying, 
which claimed divinity. It is certain that the two 
sayings contradict each other, and, if they were divine, 
divinity, which is said to be without variableness, or 
shadow of turning, is as unstable as our political hob- 
bies, which ride men into political power to destroy 
and be destroyed by other political vultures. 

Thus is the book resorted to to rebut even the good 
of its own pages, as well as from any other source. 
And, if men would receive good therefrom, and teach 
it as from authority, they must swallow so much evil 
from the same, that the good is much more than over- 
balanced. It is filled with every variety of thought, 
and sentiment, and people go there to find confirma- 
tion for any sentiment they have imbibed, find it, dub 
it with divinity, come away with authority, and smother 
sound reasoning, the real divinity in man. One 
will take one end, and another the other, and argue 
their own point, sustaining their own doctrine, without 
-ever meeting each other with any practical conclu- 
sions. Thas is the so-called Christian world filled with 
every variety of discordant sentiment regarding the 
future ; with no practical conclusions whatever of their 
present well doing or being. The greatest enemy to 
one branch of the church is another branch, each being 
17* 



198 REASONS FOR REJECTING THS BIBlE, MOV 

founded on the authority of the same book. The 
severe persecutions of the Bible religionist come from 
the Bible religionist. Each persecutes a more liberal 
interpretation. Once the pope was the sole interpreter p 
now, with the more liberal, each layman is his own 
critic. The time was when Murray bore as sever© 
reproach for his Universal Salvation doctrine as 
Thomas Paine now bears for discarding the whole 
book as anything more than the ordinary production 
of men. And the time is coming when the book is to 
be dissected, and each part stand on itsown merits, or 
fall by its own unworthiness ; when each individual 
man or woman shall be their own individual council 
of what is and what is not divine and sacred, instead 
of receiving dogmatically the opinions of King James* 
and his court. 

The several writers of the book are not responsible 
for the false interpretation of their writings^ or either 
for the erroneous doctrines of any other, or any for 
the mistranslation J. but we have the book, with \\& 
contradictory teachings, interpretation and translations- 
bringing all the discordant sects that we see, while 
humanity is neglected, rejected, and trampled under , 
foot, to save unbroken its pages of idolatry, super- 
stition, history and humanity ; all under the guise of 
divinity ; and the question is, to each of us, shall we 
longer be duped and cursed by a kingly court, or shall 
we, like men of common sense, receive such alone as 
commends itself to our understandings, and live truth- 
fully, obedient to the God that now is within our own 
bosoms, and leave behind us those of more heathen 
ages ? 

" The Family Christian Almanac," as it styles it- 
self, gives us a pretty good hint that some of the Bible 
at least is of questionable utility. It relates an anec- 



SEASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 199 

dote of an old man, who, for a long period, puzzled 
himself about the difficulties of the Scripture, until at 
last he came to the conclusion that reading the Bible 
was like fish-eating, having many bones to be laid 
aside. Many are so unwise as to think, if we reject 
one part of the Bible, we also reject the simple truths 
of nature which are recorded in another part of the 
book. But each truth should stand on its own merit, 
or each error fall by itself. Paul said, " Be subject 
to the powers that be/' which may have been a very 
reasonable requirement for his hearers, to save them 
from the persecutions which a rebellion would have 
brought on them ; but his reasons for such subjection, 
" for they are ordained of God," were very erroneous 
indeed ; for it was the same " powers " which perse- 
cuted him. Thus are truth and error uttered by the 
same, almost with the same breath, and recorded as 
divine on the same pages of the Bible. 

Asked a reverend gentleman of me, " If you reject 
the Bible, how do you know you are not a jackass ? " 
If I had taken his Bible instructions, in answering 
" a fool according to his folly," I should have replied, 
" Because I am unlike you." But my wit was not 
quick enough, and perhaps it was well that it was not ; 
for there was already sufficient antagonism existing 
between us. 



WHY I RESPECT CHRISTIANITY AND REJECT THE 
POPULAR CHURCH. 

I respect it because it generally corresponds with 
the teachings of nature, and because its main princi- 
ples are sound, philosophic and wise, and generally 
simple and practicable ; and why it is not more gen- 
erally respected is, because there is much purporting 
to be Christianity, which is not ; and the precept and 



200 REASONS FOB, REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC, 

practice of professed Christians do not correspond, 
they not being founded in the truth taught by Jesus, 
but with a mixture of the errors and traditions of past 
ages handed down to them by their fathers and the 
Bible. 

They who will learn of the ever-open book of na- 
ture, will there find the general principles inculcated 
by Jesus, though the professed Christian world regard 
Christianity as supernatural. 

To take the Bible as a whole, we might as properly 
call it the teachings of Moses, Solomon, Paul, or any 
other writer in the book, as that of Jesus ; so, to learn 
Christianity from the Bible, we should confine our- 
selves to the doctrines taught by Jesus himself, and 
not range back into more heathen ages, or take the 
writings of later commentators as a guide, unless they 
corroborate the fundamental principles. First estab- 
lish the fundamental principles, and then whatsoever 
does not correspond should be rejected as foreign ; else 
admit that the foundation is false, which should explode 
the whole affair, which we must do, or it will explode 
itself if false ; for no structure can stand that has not 
a good foundation, or is not harmonious in itself, from 
the laying of the first stone to giving it the last finish- 
ing touch. That the Bible, as a whole, especially as 
it is generally received and interpreted, is that har- 
monious work, I need only point to the many con- 
tradictory sects, professing to receive their doctrines 
from the Bible, to refute. That even Christianity it- 
self, as there recorded, harmonizes with itself, and with 
nature, I doubt exceedingly. Yet, as I say, I respect 
Christianity because its main principles are sound, and 
generally correspond with nature. 

The kingdom of heaven, to which Jesus often 
pointed his hearers, he said they could not enter, un- 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 201 

less they became as little children — simple, artless, 
natural. " As ye would that men should do unto you, 
do ye even so unto them," is another mode of express- 
ing what I have often heard from little, unperverted 
children. " How would you like to have anybody do 
so to you ? " is the simple expression of the little child, 
when abused by his more rude playmate. Jesus again 
said, " Suffer little children to come unto me, and for- 
bid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
Not is to be at some future time, but now is. Such 
was the natural, unperverted condition of little chil- 
dren, that of such was the kingdom of heaven; a king- 
dom of love, or the kingdom of God, which was already 
come. That the kingdom of heaven to which he re- 
ferred was something of this present life may be un- 
derstood from another saying of Jesus, " Take no 
thought for the morrow, what ye shall eat, drink, or 
wherewithal ye shall be clothed ; seek first the king- 
dom of heaven, and all these things shall be added 
unto you ; " plainly telling his hearers that the king- 
dom of heaven for them to seek was in the present 
life, to be obtained even previous to the morrow's food 
or raiment. Again he says, in the prayer, " Thy 
kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as in 
heaven." It was not to be put off and realized in an- 
other sphere, as the religious world are wont to do, 
but a matter for present consideration, for present 
attainment. His wish was that the will of God be 
done in this earthly sphere, as in the purely spirit- 
ual sphere which he denominated heaven. He would 
call it the kingdom of heaven in contradistinction to 
the then kingdoms of earth, which were of the sword, 
and like evil power. It was a kingdom of love, or of 
God, with a realizing sense of internal life, an ever- 
lasting principle, inextinguishable by any external 



202 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

power ; while the kingdoms of earth were all an ex- 
ternal affair, depending upon their destructive power 
to save themselves. He taught, too, that God was 
everywhere: an ever-present being or existence; a 
sparrow could not fall without his note. Though 
Jesus performed what the religious world regard as 
miracles, yet he said to his disciples, "If ye believe, 
the works I do ye shall do ; and greater works." 
And he again said, " And these signs shall follow those 
that believe." Mark the words, " those that believe." 
Not his disciples, or their hearers, but " those that 
believe." The power which he possessed he did not 
claim as being his exclusively, but that of all others 
who could believe, "and greater" power, or works, 
they would be able to perform. 

Universal love, which was the great theme of Jesus, 
is natural with little, unperverted children ; and to sus- 
tain the present organization of society, the sentiment 
has to be broken down, their loves cut off to one, and 
that one isolated love put under bonds to be as last- 
ing as life, which is as impossible as to have a redeemed 
world without universal love. The love or affection 
of children even extends to the lower order of crea- 
tion, animals and birds, which they would save from 
the rude hand of their destroyers, were it possible with 
them ; but they are soon educated to buy and sell, 
" slay and eat," and fire their blood with the spirit 
which inspires their fathers ; and soon their own broth- 
ers and sisters, cradled on the same bosom, nursed 
from the same fount, and alike dear to the parent, are 
made to appear to have separate interests, and, ere 
long, they are thrown into antagonistic positions, and 
the once dear, loving, natural little children become 
the destroyers of each other. How different it would 
be if these little children were left free to grow up 
with their natural sentiment of universal love ! 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 203 

Jesus abjured the laying up of treasures — money, 
or a representation of wealth, which corresponds 
with the nature of the child, though I am told that 
the people are so selfish by nature that my ideal of 
society can never be realized. Whoever knew the lit- 
tle child to be a miser, having all the unenlightened 
selfishness of him who had been depraved and edu- 
cated to place his affections on gold ! That the child 
does inherit the miserly sentiments of the parents, 
it would be folly to deny ; but that such is pure na- 
ture, and that he can be a miser of the deep, iniquitous 
dye, without a life-long education, contrary to the 
universal sentiment of brotherhood which is so natural 
in the unperverted child, would be a greater folly to 
deny. 

The saying, " The more one has the more he 
wants," is to the letter true ; which proves that it is a 
desire not like other desires, which are purely natural, 
easily satisfied. Nature makes provisions for the 
satisfaction or gratification of every desire she has 
implanted ; therefore, that which cannot ever be sat- 
isfied, but ever increases as we attempt to do so, 
we may truly cast aside as unnatural. Of Solomon, 
who, the catechism of the professed Christian church 
teaches us, was the wisest man the world ever knew, 
Jesus said, he, in all his riches, splendor and glory, 
was not arrayed as were the lilies of the field. 

The overcoming of evil with good, which Jesus 
taught, not only corresponds with nature, — as said he, 
" God maketh his sun to rise, and rain to fall, alike on 
the evil and the good," — but it is philosophic and wise, 
and the only method by which we can overcome evil, 
and be saved ourselves. That there was much taught 
by him which, like this principle, seemed far above na- 
ture to those who were below pure nature by perver- 



204 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

sions, I will not undertake to controvert ; for the sim- 
plest truths of nature are often deemed unnatural and 
impracticable by those who boast of their much wis- 
dom and goodness. 

Non-resistance, which is a reliance on the spiritual 
element to protect us, and overcome whatever opposes, 
though the very essence of Christianity, is usually 
scoffed at by the professed Christian world. 

A spiritual existence, which is taught, is to me as 
natural and comprehensible as my material existence, 
though it may require deeper argument than I am 
possessed of to convince the unbelieving. Any argu- 
ment, however conclusive, might fail to convince many 
who must endure their doubts and fears until the real- 
ity undeceives them. However plain the truth pre- 
sented, there must be a corresponding one in the being 
to whom it is presented, else it cannot be compre- 
hended. We must be in harmony with nature to un- 
derstand her teachings. Would we understand and 
realize eternal life, we must cease to violate eternal 
laws, both spiritual and physical. It is a pretty good 
argument with me in favor of the immortality of the 
soul or life, that God or nature does not create de- 
mands without furnishing a supply to gratify those 
demands. 

Did nature ever create a want which she did not 
supply ? And is there not a want in every being for 
eternal life ? Can God or nature, so benevolent in all 
other designs and supplies, be neglectful in this re- 
spect, and mock us when we desire eternal life, which 
desires were implanted by the Deity himself? After 
all that can be said, we must cease to violate God's 
laws in order to realize his ever-presence, and the fact of 
eternal life abiding in us. Understanding the spirit- 
ual existence, and having fulfilled our mission in this 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 205 

sphere, we will as joyously depart (leaving none to 
regret) as does the natural infant escape his more 
narrow abode, and enter the present. 

The miracles performed by Jesus were miracles only 
to those who knew not the laws by which they were 
performed, which laws are really as natural as any 
physical law of our being. In his day, that which 
was not understood by the multitude was deemed supe- 
rior to nature, or supernatural, when the want of un- 
derstanding those principles was because of their perver- 
sions of nature. He said they were " blinded by their 
sins." In his day there was a cry, " He hath a devil ; " 
and a similar cry now comes from his professed fol- 
lowers toward those who know more of a spiritual life. 
That which Jesus did not strenuously oppose, perhaps 
for the reason that the people could not appreciate his 
sentiments, many are ready to assert that he favored, 
if it favor their idea of truth. Thus his presence at 
the marriage-feast is construed that he favored the ex- 
ternal, formal marriage. It might as well be said that 
he favored wine-bibbing and gluttony, or that he 
favored the Jewish religion by being present at the 
Jewish synagogue on their Sabbath. In fact, this lat- 
ter act of his is often cited as a reason for the observ- 
ance of the day. He was not slow to speak where or 
when he was tolerated, and sometimes when he was 
not. 

Because I respect these, the doctrines of Jesus, it 
does not necessarily follow that I should bow to the 
dogmas of his commentators or biographers ; or be- 
cause I respect the general principles which I can 
comprehend, and deem practicable, it does not follow 
that I must understand everything which he taught ; 
or because I profess to follow him in some respects, it 
does not follow that I may not have a truth never 
18 



206 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

uttered by him. A true man may be the recipient of 
a truth independent of any visible external sense, and 
must follow a truth whichsoever way it may lead him, 
whether with Jesus, Paul, or Apollos, or contrary to 
either. I hope I shall be pardoned, especially by the 
professed followers of Jesus, for presuming to differ 
somewhat from the sentiments accorded to him. I 
cannot well do otherwise, and, though the world per- 
secute me severely, his true followers will have char- 
ity for my weakness, if such it be, and teach me, with 
all pleasure, the truth which will win me. If there 
be no difference of opinion, then the world of mind is 
harmonized, leaving no further necessity for teaching ; 
and, if it be not harmonized, teaching is the means for 
enlightened Christian men to do so, rather than perse- 
cution, even in the mildest form. 

In regard to the origin of judgments, of which I 
have written elsewhere, I honestly dissent from his 
views, if the Bible gives, and I understand, his views 
correctly. And I should only play the hypocrite 
should I favor the commonly accepted idea that judg- 
ments come from God; and I think it a matter of 
great importance that this error, if such it be, be van-, 
quished. When I warn one of the mischievousness of 
pork-eating, tobacco-chewing, and smoking, and whiskey- 
drinking, and he quotes, in all sincerity, " It is not 
that which goeth into the mouth, but that which com- 
eth out, that defileth the man," I readily conclude 
that that man would be quite as well without any 
Bible. 

As much of a disbeliever as I am, I think I do not 
dissent in precept from so much of the teachings of 
Jesus, as the so-called Christian church do in prac- 
tice, though, as do they, I claim my own interpreta- 
tion, which may differ very much from the most ortho- 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 207 

dox understanding of the same. It illy becomes the 
Christian world to denounce me for an honest avowal 
of my disbelief in this, or any other point, when they 
profess to pay Christianity so much deference, yet, in 
their acts, give the lie to almost every practical inter- 
pretation of Jesus' teachings. If I can be shown a 
religious sect which honor, in their life or practice, 
what themselves will concede to be purely the teach- 
ings of Jesus, and praiseworthy to be practised, then I 
can be shown what I never have seen. 

The principal reforms which pertain to humanity 
and Christianity, so far as I have knowledge, have 
originated out of the church organization, and have 
generally had the church to contend with, until they 
have become somewhat popular, and, after this, have 
had the old lifeless body of the church to drag along 
with them. I do not say this in a spirit of censure 
toward the members of any church, for all have done 
the best they could under the circumstances. I tell 
the facts as they are, or seem to me, that, if any can 
profit by the telling, they may do so. The first prin- 
ciples of religious freedom, which struggled for a being 
within the few last centuries, found their severest per- 
secutions in the church, and through the struggle for 
political, and now for social freedom to love according 
to the laws of God implanted in every human being, 
the church is the great obstacle. 

The church itself, professing to be of Christ, is the 
great obstacle in the way of pure Christianity. It is 
a lamentable truth. 

Loving enemies, overcoming evil with good, abjur- 
ing the law, putting up the sword, opening the prison 
doors, and letting the captive go free, laying not up 
treasures, or not seeking after riches, preaching the 
gospel free, without money or price, not praying in 



208 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

the synagogues, or at the corner of the streets, but in 
secret if at all, non-resistance, forgiving those who 
trespass against us, being perfect, living as one great 
brotherhood ; — these are ail Christian virtues, it will 
not be denied. But where, in all the church, shall we 
find these virtues? Can it truly be said that the 
church has pure love, even for her own ? Y/hen pov- 
erty and misfortune overtake her members, are they 
not often neglected by the church, and driven to vice 
and crime, or left in the poor-house to pine and die ? 
What reliance has the church more than the world 
on good to overcome evil ? Though within her pale, 
are we then free from the external law of evil to hush 
the exposition of her iniquities, and choke the germ 
of true Christianity ? And do not her members gen- 
erally look to the external law of evil for the redress 
of wrongs? History tells us what has been in the 
past ; and, in future, will history tell what is in the 
present. Said Jesus, " If one sue thee at the law, 
and take thy coat, give him thy cloak also." And 
how do the members of the church fulfil this command ? 
I need not answer ; their own knowledge of the facts 
gives the reply. On war, which Jesus abjured, and, 
which every good man detests, and which even the bad 
regard as corrupting to those engaged in it, how stands 
the church? Have not her hands, ever since the 
primitive church, been reeking in blood, when blood 
has been shed? Her ministers pray for the success 
of arms, thinking her wars are holy wars ; but how 
can unholiness be holy? How can antichristian be 
of Christ ? Who can answer and explain ? On open- 
ing the prison doors, and letting the captive go free, 
how stands the church ? — above the world ? No. 
One word, unanimously spoken by the church, would 
open every prison door of the nation, and relieve us 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 209 

of a system so foul that it knows no end to corruption. 
For months I have laid in prison within the sound of 
near half a score of " belfry bells/' whose clatter 
seemed as the death-dirge to humanity ; and though 
I begged an interview of the clergy professing Chris* 
tianity, yet my term expired without the favor being 
shown me. Not that I was guilty of any crime against 
humanity, but that I obeyed the laws of God written 
in my being ; that I obeyed the law of love which is 
Christianity; that I was in prison, and the church, 
professing to be of Christ, forsook me. 

" Lay not up treasures on earth." How stands 
this matter with the church ? Is there not there as 
elsewhere the same strife for gold, and its slaveries? 
All the agencies of mammon, the law, the prison and 
the sword, are there, and is mammon itself absent ? 
For what can they be wanting, if the almighty dollar 
does not outshine her righteousness? " The Rev. Mr. 
Such-an-one has had a louder call to preach somewhere 
else," has become almost a by-word, so common is it 
that a minister changes his location for larger pay. 
The influence of gold in the church is not only felt in the 
ministry but among the laymen. The high seats, the low 
seats, the rich and the poor seats, the white seats and 
the black seats, all have their being in the church ; 
cursing one portion with vanity, and the other with 
servility and jealousy. " The gospel without price," 
though sold to the highest bidder as other commodi- 
ties. Such can only be what the people, on their 
sins and blindness, think they want. A preacher of 
truth and righteousness must be above the influences 
of gold, else he will give his hearers what the gold 
demands, and gold demands the perpetuation of the 
kingdoms of earth, with all their evil influences, rather 
18* 



210 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, fifty 

than removing them with the kingdom of love, God, or 
heaven. 

Of prayer. Though a matter of little moment in 
itself, it is of much importance to determine whether 
the worship be of pharisaic, heathen or Christian origin. 
Said Jesus, " But thou, when thou prayest, enter into 
thy closet ; and when thou hast shut the door pray to 
thy Father in secret ; — use no vain repetitions as the 
heathen ; — for your Father knoweth what things ye 
have need of before ye ask him. After this manner 
pray ye : Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be 
thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in 
earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
evil : for thine is the power and glory forever." 

Jesus would call the people away from the external 
prayer of many words to a secret prayer of few words ; 
" For," says he, " your Father knoweth what things 
ye have need of before ye ask him," which really nul- 
lifies the necessity for any vocal prayer. God, being 
wise, knows our wants ; and, benevolent, is willing to 
supply ; and, able, he does so. And we are only to 
obey his laws and enjoy his unlimited bounties. There 
is not anything wanting on his part ; if there was, he 
could not be all wisdom, goodness and power; there- 
fore even the secret prayer of Jesus is non-essential, 
except to bring our minds to the fact of God's wisdom 
in knowing, and bounteous goodness in supplying, all 
our needs. 

A Christian's prayer, then, is a secret matter be- 
tween himself and God, and, in reality, may consist in 
the benevolent, unuttered desire of the heart that the 
will of God should be done in earth as in heaven. 
God has implanted such desire or prayer, and will 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 211 

fulfil or gratify it. It is a perpetual prayer, and the 
Christian's life-aims correspond. Every thought, every 
word, every act, is devoted to that end. God dwells 
in him ; a principle of eternal life, love and happiness, 
which he realizes ; and he anticipates with pleasure the 
time when each son and daughter of Adam shall be 
brought into harmonic relations, and the kingdom of 
love will be come, and the will of God be done in 
earth as in heaven. 

Such is the Christian's prayer* But how stands the 
matter with the church? Of the individual, secret 
prayer I know nothing, and have nothing to say ; but 
of the church prayer I ask honestly, candidly, is it 
heathen, pharisaic, or Christian ? Answer, ye who 
will, according to the dictates of your own conscience 
and enlightened understanding, and give or withdraw 
your support as you deem it worthy or unworthy, and 
not as an idolatrous throng would require. 

Of non-resistance what can be said ? Has the 
church for centuries been on this platform ? Is its trust 
in God? I do not mean the far-off " unknown God," 
" the man of war," " the consuming fire," or " the 
jealous God," of the Bible ; but is its trust in the ever- 
present God of love, that spiritual element in which 
we live ? Is not the church, like the state, ever ready 
to resist with bloodshed, if need be, the aggressor on 
her wrongs, which she deems her rights. Has she not 
for ages been not only the resister but the aggressor 
on human rights ? Could the earth give up her dead, 
that have been slain for the church, what a tale would 
they tell ! Could the blood flow in one stream which 
has been spilled for this giant monster, the banks of 
the largest river could not contain it. Yet the church 
professes to be of Christ. That the present church is 
the past I will not say ; but that it is not the offspring, 



212 REASON B #011 REJECTING 'Mi; hibLti, ETd 

so far as it is church, the truthful will not deny, 
Humanity has grown, and as she gains in strength she 
throws off one dogma after another, weakening the 
church in the same ratio that she strengthens herself: 
and such will continue until the church will only be 
known as in the past, and humanity will be redeemed 
by the spiritual element, which understands that non- 
resistance is all resistance, because it is a reliance on 
God, who saves, and destroys not. 

The gallows finds its most zealous supporters among 
the clergy, though many are far too humane for so 
barbarous a practice as murder. " Whoso sheds man's 
blood, by man shall his blood be shed," is quite as often, 
or much more often, quoted by the church in defence 
of the gallows, than is " resist not evil " in defence of 
Christianity. 

Shall I tire my reader in recounting the wrongs of 
the church, professing Christianity ? I hope not until 
I tire them of the church itself, and make them loathe 
its very existence as they would a pestilence; and as 
they so loathe, I would have them love the true prin- 
ciples of Christianity, and hold them as dear as life 
itself. / 

In forgiving those who trespass against them, how 
does the church? Need I say, like all others of her 
practice, she is in fault ? The God of the church is one 
that is by and by to visit judgment on the transgressor ; 
and how, pray tell me, is the church to do better than 
its God ? Can a stream rise higher than its fountain ? 
Can the church, with an angry, jealous, unforgiving 
God, themselves forgive ? It is impossible. The mem- 
bers, in their individual capacity, may be prompted by 
their humanity to forgive ; but as churchmen, never. 

Of 'perfection. Said Jesus, "Be ye therefore per- 
fect." But how say the church of themselves ? Much 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 213 

of their service consists in the acknowledgment of their 
sinfulness and un worthiness of the many favors be- 
stowed by the Supreme Being they worship. I have 
often been laughed at for advocating such a state as 
human perfection. It is no part of the church creed 
to be perfect, to be good, to be worthy of the choicest 
blessings of Heaven ; but to receive them after death as 
a price for humiliation and idolatrous worship, and 
the blood of Jesus. Of the brotherhood of the race, 
how better is the church than the world on this point ? 
Need I say, not a whit ? It is even so, any further 
than lip-service. One would be brothered almost to 
death while he prospered as a worldling ; but when for- 
tune frowns, the cold hearts would make the greetings 
cold. And what is a brotherhood that loves only its 
own ? * Can it be Christian ? Said Jesus, " If ye love 
only those who love you, what do ye more than others? 
Do not the publicans the same ? " There are no severer 
heart-burnings elsewhere in the world than between 
the different branches of the church. 

So prominent a sin as is war the church coun- 
tenances. She makes valiant soldiers life-members 
of her Bible societies; thereby conferring marks of 
high distinction on what Jesus reprobated in the se- 
verest degree. There is no lawful act which disquali- 
fies one from being a church member, though the whole 
panorama of the law, from beginning to end, was ab- 
jured by Jesus. 

I once asked a sister, who was a devotee to the 
church, to point me to one practical virtue of the 
church as such. " In what respect," said I, " does she 
follow Christ ? " She hesitated and pondered for a 
moment, and then replied, " We have a Sabbath-school 
to teach the children Christianity." Doubtless she 
thought so. If she had said it was to teach them 



214 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

the idolatrous worship of the Bible, and forbid them 
to obey the law of love written in their beings, which 
was really the doctrine of Jesus, she would have come 
nearer to the truth. But suppose it were true that 
the church taught nothing but Christianity, shall the 
church of Christ be a teacher and not a doer of right- 
eousness? Can she be so ? I conclude not. If I 
mistake not, Christianity has no guide-boards to point 
out the road which themselves do not travel. The way 
is lonely to those who have not the light of truth with- 
in their own bosoms ; and those that have such must 
lead the way, ever cheering those in the dark to fol- 
low. 

I have hunted in vain for one practical virtue in 
the church ; though in the members, aside from their 
church organization, I find virtue, as elsewhere in 
humanity, as well as vice. The observance of the 
Sabbath, to which are added some worthless ceremo- 
nies, which constitute the main doings of the church, 
except the suppressing of more enlightened sentiments 
than those of heathen ages, is not Christianity. The 
Sabbath had a being long anterior to the preaching 
of Jesus, and nowhere, in all his sayings, is there 
authority for the observance of one day above another ; 
and though " Bemember the Sabbath day, and keep it 
holy," is often quoted as from Jesus, it was a part of 
the code of" Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. " 

Paul said, " Some men esteem one day above an- 
other, and other men every day alike; let every man 
be fully persuaded in his own mind ; " which was as 
much as to say, " Let no man violate his own con- 
sciousness of right by disregarding the day ; but really 
all days are alike." Jesus said not a word on this 
point except to defend himself from the imputations 
of the pharisaic multitude, by asking them if it was 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 215 

not lawful to do a good on the Sabbath. He would 
have them understand that the deed was good or evil 
independent of the day ; and such is the truth. A 
deed which is good cannot be made evil by the clay on 
which it is performed, any more than a bad deed can 
be made good by being performed on the Sabbath. 

And what Jesus teaches in this respect, nature also 
teaches. The rain falls ; the rivulet follows its wonted 
course to the river, and the river to the ocean, whose 
bosom is heaved by the gentle breeze, or the furious 
winds. The sun shines, the moon gives her light, and 
the stars twinkle in their azure vault, and follow their 
own law of attraction. The flowers blossom and fall ; 
the trees bud, blossom, grow their fruit; the insects 
fill the air, with their tiny wings, answer their end, 
and enjoy their momentary life. The birds soar on 
high, or fill the air with their melodious notes. The 
herds graze and frolic. All — all nature praises God, 
from the least to the greatest, by enjoying the day, 
except man, ignorant, superstitious man, who trans- 
gresses God's true laws on the six, and, on the sev- 
enth day, by a semblance of contriteness, thinks to 
avoid the judgments of his own sins. 

Science has long since exploded the theory that God 
made the world in six days, hut finished it, and rested 
on the seventh, and, therefore, man should rest from 
his labor at like intervals. The church, wise to save 
the credit of the book, make a new interpretation, as 
they ever do to save their idols, and call the days peri- 
ods of time, each of which might have been millions of 
years ; but they lose the day as one of rest or relig- 
ious observance. 

That man should not have a respite from toil one 
seventh or more of the time, or have one day or more 
in seven for recreation, or social amusements, or instruc- 



216 REASONS FOE- REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

tion, I will not deny ; but, when that day is at the 
expense of two days' excessive labor, or the social 
amusement of the most dull and monotonous descrip- 
tion, or the instruction of the most dogmatic and in- 
consistent type, then I doubt the utility of suspending 
labor, if the heathen's god did do so. 

With the orientals, who were overtasked with labor 
on the six days, rest on the seventh was a boon. So 
is fasting to the overtasked stomach; but it were 
better far that we divide the labor and food equally 
with the seven days. However, as Paul said, let 
every one " be fully persuaded " that what they do is 
right, and the best. If they choose to exhaust themselves 
with toil on the six days, and rest on the seventh, or eat 
to gluttony on the six, and fast on the seventh, they must 
do so ; but I pray they do not impose the day or deed 
on me as a Christian religious day or ordinance. Moses' 
law of stoning to death for picking sticks is just as 
binding on me as the observance of the day in any 
form. 

The slander of the world, the neglect of worldly 
friends, the subjection to fine, robbing one of means of 
support, or throwing him into prison, are persecutions 
the worldling is illy able to bear for righteousness' 
sake ; much more would be the taking of the cross, 
and following to the place of execution, and passing 
the dark valley and shadow of death, without the light 
of the Eternal One to guide and cheer us. 

The church talk of their devotions, as taking the 
cross of Christ, though surrounded by friends, and 
with none to molest. It may be crossing to their true 
natures to bow to idolatrous worship ; but, if they are 
Christians, it illy becomes them to compare their per- 
secutions to that of Christ bearing the cross to his 
place of execution. The days of crucifixion are past, 



REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 217 

but not of persecution to those who teach obedience to 
the higher law rather than to the law of murderous 
nations ; and these persecutions, as in olden time, 
come from those who shout " Holiness to the Lord." 

Would the church free itself from the dogmas of 
heathen ages, and honor in practice the pure spirit of 
Christianity, she would have power at once to silence 
every dissenting breath, and she would be loved and 
honored as a loving parent would be by a dutiful 
child. Had the American church, in the middle of 
the last century, been on the true foundation, long ere 
this would the clatter of battle-steel have ceased, and 
the world have been redeemed from its strife and want ; 
nor would it have been necessary for me to speak 
these truths from the prison, showing why I respect or 
reject Christianity, or reject the church professing 
Christianity. 



ELDER a. G-. 

I understand this gentleman tells his hearers that 
James A. Clay is a rebel to his country or govern- 
ment. Will the reverend brother teach me how I 
can be a Christian man, in the pure acceptation of the 
term, and not be a rebel to any government that makes 
war, or is founded on the sword, and prison, or tol- 
erates slavery in any form ? If he will, he will teach 
me of" a wonder under the sun." Tell me honestly, my 
brother, if you are not a rebel to the government of 
the State of Maine and the United States, are you 
not a rebel to Christianity, which you tell the people 
is so desirable ? And, at your coming judgment day, 
on which the " sheep and goats " are to be separated, 
to whom then will it be desirable that you have been 
19 



218 REASONS FOR REJECTING THE BIBLE, ETC. 

a loyal subject, President Pierce, Governor Morrill, 
and their followers, or to humanity ? Or, in the com- 
ing reign of reason and common sense, which, judge 
3^ou, will bear the palm, the Christianity of the now 
Kev. Mr. Gr., or the infidelity of the now despised and 
slandered James A. Clay ? Time will tell. Be patient, 
and we shall see. I have no objection that friend GL 
and his followers should swallow the United States 
government, " bloodhounds " and all, if their appetites 
crave such, or denominate me a rebel or tory ; but I 
pray they do not spend their time, or waste their slime, 
on such institutions, thinking I shall turn serpent, and 
join them in their feast. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ASSOCIATIONS A FAILURE. 

Well they may have been failures, for they have 
usually had a foundation in the same falsehood that 
has our present organized society. They have thought 
to build a new truth on an old error ; — a mixing 
of new wine with the old, and putting the whole in the 
same old bottles that could not hold the old. The 
law, the moneyed power, and marriage relations of the 
old society have usually been retained of their own 
accord, or have been imposed on them by the old. 
They have sometimes, and, for aught I know, invaria- 
bly, supported their own schools, and still paid their 
school-tax to those outside. If they have abjured the 
war system and the retaliatory law, they have been 
obliged to contribute to their support. And though 
they have overcome pauperism with themselves, they 
are forced to contribute to the support of the robbed 
of the society from whence they went. If associa- 
tions have failed for the want of harmony in them- 
selves, it is only for the want of true principles and 
harmonic individuals, which the present society, from 
which the members went, failed to furnish. It is not 
the true principles of association that have failed ; nor 
need we say that association is not the true principles, 
for every nation, state, county, city, town or district, or 
family, is an association. These associations, that have 
somewhat separated themselves from the ordinary gov- 



220 ASSOCIATIONS A FAILURE. 

ernments, with all the wrongs they have endured, are 
no more failures than are the old organizations. Of 
all the governments that have been, there are but few 
that have not passed away, a total failure ; and of the 
few that are left, how many that the future will not tell 
" they have failed " ? 

England's overworked, half-starved, landless, igno- 
rant millions would tell a sad tale for English associa- 
tion. The oft blood-dyed soil of France condemns 
French association. A visit to the Crimea and her 
gory fields, and a listening to the sad tales that might 
be told of the many thousands who have sold them- 
selves to the inhuman work of human butchery for 
bread, would seal the condemnation for all monarchial 
associations. And Africa's more than robbed millions, 
and the remnant of the red men, complain bitterly of 
the wrongs of American association. Even New Eng- 
land's overworked, poorly fed, ignorant, houseless 
thousands, .with the call for charity and charitable 
institutions, assert, in indisputable language, that New 
England association is a failure. New England's mad- 
houses, prisons, almshouses and reform schools, are but 
words in thunder-tones condemning the present asso- 
ciations of this the most favored of American soil. 
The hurried life, strife and anxiety, of those who are 
far above pecuniary want, tell us plainly that even 
they, with all their wealth, servants and moneyed 
power, are not in their ideal association. 

From the beginning of these associations — the 
coupling of two by legal bonds, oaths or pledges, set- 
ting up distinct interests, independent of the greatest 
good of the whole, to the binding together of nations, 
with an interest not in common with the whole family 
of man, or not in harmony with the lower animals, — I 
gay, from the beginning to the endj they are all fail- 



ASSOCIATIONS A FAILURE. 221 

ures. And if there be no higher attainment for hu- 
manity than associations founded on external laws and 
the sword, contrary to the internal, universal law of 
freedom, love and harmony, then the world is a failure, 
and nature, in her beneficence and wisdom, at least in 
this one case, has failed in her benevolent design of 
happiness. 

Individual freedom — and universal harmony, happi- 
ness, love and life, is the result. External bonds — and 
universal discord, misery, enmity and death, will sure- 
ly follow. 

Pecuniarily, the Shaker societies are an exception to 
the general rule of failure. There probably cannot be 
found elsewhere, in the old organization, so pecuniarily 
prosperous a class as they present to us, though they 
have gone from the present society without any inherit- 
ance of wealth. Socially, though they discard sexual 
relations, it cannot be said they have failed, as have other 
associations, though they are very far from my ideal 
association. Their condition proves to me that the 
total sacrifice of physical love is less productive of evil 
than placing it in bonds. Certain it is that it is 
better tha race should fail by restraining propagation, 
and live in the pecuniary prosperity and other social 
conditions of the Shakers, than that we should destroy 
ourselves in war, or the strife that is being carried on 
in the commercial world, or live in the strife, destitu- 
tion and misery, which the present organization of 
society now begets. 

It is evident to me that the partial success of the 
Shakers above other societies is the discarding of the 
sexual relations, by which they overcome the isolated 
family interests, which are so productive of envy, 
jealousy and discord. But to avoid one evil we need 
not sacrifice another blessing. Men and women, if 
19* 



222 ASSOCIATIONS A FAILURE* 

they are worthy to be called enlightened men and 
women, may have love without bonds, which create 
these separate interests; and associations, without 
discarding sexual love or propagation, may have all 
the blessings of both without the evils of either state 
of society. 

There are associations in the New England and the 
Middle States, in a very prosperous condition, who dis- 
card the outward form of marriage of individuals to 
individuals, but claim all to be married as one to 
Christ. They call themselves Bible Christian Per- 
fectionists; and certainly they are entitled to the ap- 
pellation of Christians above any other considerable 
society I have known. 

I am told, that on their first founding an association 
they were driven from their home in Vermont by ther 
so-called Christian populace, when they fled to New 
York State, where they reassembled and formed an- 
other, and have since settled, one in Vermont, and one 
in Connecticut, all having an united interest. The 
people outside have learned to tolerate and # respect 
them, as they are justly deserving. As I have said, 
they are in a very prosperous condition. Their largest 
association, if I mistake not, contains near two hun- 
dred persons. They have from two to three hundred 
acres of land, a great proportion of which is under a 
good state of cultivation, with beautiful grounds about 
their buildings, nurseries and gardens. They have a 
saw-mill, flour-mill, smith's shop and printing-office, 
where they publish a weekly paper of moderate size. 
They carry on quite a business at braiding palm-leaf 
and making carpet-bags. The females assist in much 
of the light outdoor labor, as do the males in the 
heavy labor performed usually by females alone. And 
what was most strikingly beautiful to me was the 



ASSOCIATIONS A FAILURE. 223 

Bloomer female dress, so called, so well adapted to the 
health and comfort of the wearer. 

They would be considered a very temperate people, 
though they partake, to some extent, of swine's flesh 
and other meats. They are under no pledges what 
they shall eat or drink, though I think they use no 
intoxicating drinks, which are used more frequently in 
the vicinity than our Maine law folks would have us 
think they are here* 

They receive members with great caution, after such 
fully understanding them, and serving a probation, and 
subscribing to their religious belief, which is of the 
Bible ; of course, leaving members free to withdraw 
when they choose, which is rarely the case. 

They invariably testify to their improvement in their 
new relations. I will give the testimony of some y 
which is corroborated by a score or more, and, for 
aught I know, by every member of the associations. 
These I have selected for their brevity : 

Eliza T. Hastings says ■ "It expands and elevates 
the heart, roots out and destroys selfishness in its 
various forms, destroys isolation, unlocks a fountain in 
the soul unknown before, and leads us to the boundless 
ocean of God's love." 

Henry W. Burnham says : " It invigorates with life 
soul and body, and refines and exalts the character 
generally." 

Abby S. Burnham says : " The effect that free love 
has had on my character has been to raise me from 
a state of exclusiveness and idolatry to a greater en- 
largement of the heart and freedom of communication 
with God and this body." 

Sarah Burnham says : "It has a tendency to enlight- 
en my understanding, and also to enlarge and purify 
my heart." 



224 ASSOCIATIONS A fAlLURE* 

Such is the testimony of those who know from act* 
ual experience, and such is my own experience, as 
elsewhere stated, though the circumstances for an act- 
ual life of freedom in love have been everything but 
favorable with me, having been watched with jealousy 
and suspicion, and thrown into prison and robbed of 
almost everything dear to me but a consciousness of 
right. 

Gould the penniless, houseless, ragged, hungry, 
ignorant, jealous and joyless multitude, who throng the 
human flesh-marts of civilization, but realize the infi- 
nite gain of harmonic association, they would clap 
their hands for joy as they fled this hell of strife and 
antagonism, that, like the plague, torments and destroys 
them. It is painful to witness the vast amount of 
labor performed, and the little return of substantial 
happiness ; the hand of brother against brother, the 
world over, each striving to enslave the other, instead 
of uniting their efforts, as really their interests are 
united, and redeeming themselves and the world from 
slavery and misery. It is humiliating to see men 
boasting of the wisdom of the nineteenth century, and 
of the light of Christianity, forsake the soil that would 
yield them an abundance by associated industry, which 
might be made attractive, insuring them health in the 
highest degree, and emigrate to a foreign land to waste 
their lives in gold mines, which treasures, if obtained 
in the greatest profusion, only serve to enslave others, 
and load its possessor with life-long cares and per- 
plexities. 

Let an understanding man sit down and calculate the 
sum of productive and unproductive labor, and of use- 
ful and useless productions, and he will be surprised to 
find how much the latter predominates over the former, 
From a quarter to a third of the labor now performed 



ASSOCIATION A FAILURE. 225 

by those who pretend to sustain themselves by their 
own toil ought to give them a competence, and would 
do so in a well-regulated association, leaving the balance 
of the time for education, amusement and recreation. 

The trades of the world are to the ends of money- 
making or enriching the individual, irrespective of the 
products of those trades of anything useful to society 
at large. One manufactures shoes, another hats, an- 
other clothes, and each destroys the real useful and 
beautiful in their trades that they may make the more 
money. Each pays the other in his own coin, and 
each slaves himself and robs the other and the world. 
The commercial world is made up of fraud. No one 
can live in it, and get and give justice. If we purchase 
what purports to be a useful article of consumption, 
the chances are ten to get an adulterated article to one 
to get the pure. If we ask for bread we may get a 
stone, or for a fish get a serpent ; though, so nicely is the 
cheat performed, we may never detect it, but create 
disease which torments us during our natural lives. A 
large portion of the groceries, or all that are capable 
of being adulterated, are done so, and often with arti- 
cles the most deleterious to human life. 

It takes a Burritt to calculate the vast amount of 
useless labor that is expended to carry on the war 
system of governments, and the amount of internal 
improvements the sum would achieve if wisely ex- 
pended in harmonic industry ; but Mr. Burritt has 
hardly begun to compute the waste and destruction of 
the present organization of society, and what might be 
achieved for humanity by wisely directing the energies 
that are now in being. 

My conservative friends tell me the people will not 
tolerate my views here, and ask me why I do not go to 
New York and join this association which seems to me 



226 ASSOCIATION A FAILURE. 

so Christian-like ? There are many good reasons why 
I should not do so. Perhaps the best one of all is, 
they will not receive me, for the reason that I am not 
a believer in the divine authenticity of all the Bible. 
And there may be other cause why they will not do 
so ; and I have good reasons why I should not leave 
here and join them, if they would accept me. Though 
the most practical in goodness of any considerable 
number associated together known to me, they have 
many views which do not harmonize with mine. And, 
more than this, error must be met in Maine as well as 
in New York ; and, should I run from persecution, 
where shall I flee? The very earth everywhere is 
cursed ; not by God, but by the ignorance and misrule 
of the people ; and, should I flee to another state or 
another country, it would be only to meet a despotism 
similar to that which prevails here. Why did not 
our fathers flee the land that gave them birth when 
King George and his court would impose on them his 
laws? I was born on this soil, with natural, inalien- 
able rights, and have never bartered them away, nor 
have I forfeited them by the constitution of the United 
States or of the State of Maine, or by the strictest, 
purest interpretation of the Christian religion. And, 
more than this, I have been robbed of the most of my 
property by the reverses of fortune and the falses of 
society, and have not now the means free to enable me 
to locate comfortably elsewhere ; therefore of necessity 
have been compelled thus far to stop here. 

I do not write this in a spirit of defiance or com- 
plaint, but that my views and principles may be better 
understood and more respected in future. In the past 
all have done the best they could ; and the persecution 
I have endured in defence of the truth has been only to 



PATCHING. 227 

speed its course. And were I persecuted even unto 
death, the finale would be much the same, for 

" Truth crushed to earth will rise again, — 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 
Error wounded writhes in pain, 
And dies amid her worshippers." 



PATCHING. 

At a recent meeting of some of our citizens there 
was an association formed, styled the "Gardiner Prov- 
ident Association," whose object it is to minister to the 
wants of the poor. A very benevolent, praiseworthy 
object, indeed, and one I hope that will make many 
a glad heart among the givers as well as the receiv- 
ers. But while they are thus patching their old gar- 
ments, — the state, town and church associations, that 
do not their work well, — I hope they will not fail to 
look to these institutions, or behind them, and see 
why all this poverty, and take measures to remove the 
cause, rather than stitch patch upon patch, when the 
whole old garment is so rotten and torn that a mending 
of one rent opens another. 

A well-organized society, founded in wisdom, would 
not have destitute members while others were pletho- 
ritic, nor would charity need to feed any but the per- 
manent invalid. Give labor its just reward, and suf- 
fer no robbery by capital, and the laborer would be 
raised from his servitude, and pauperism would be 
overcome, and real capital would rest on a firm and 
sure base, whereas both are insecure now. The capi- 
tal in the hands of one class and the labor elsewhere, 
and no harmony existing between the two, and we may 



228 PATCHING. 

be sure of such convulsions as we have in the commer- 
cial world, and finally a political eruption will desolate 
the land. Without a radical change in the policy of 
even American institutions, we may be sure, as a nation, 
of being known only with the things that were. The 
social, political, commercial and religious, are all of one 
system, having for their base, medium and element of 
life, money, which surfeits one, starves a second, robs a 
third, murders a fourth, and fools all. What rare vir- 
tue does this republic possess to save her, that was not 
possessed by those republics that have risen and fallen 
before ? Like them all, she has a material base relying 
on an external force of evil, to save which at best can 
only destroy. 

The laborer wants something more than a precari- 
ous existence, dependent on the will, caprice or interest, 
of the capitalist, whose increase of wealth and power 
depends upon the depressions of labor ; and the cap- 
italist needs further security than he possibly can have 
in the present organization. 

It can hardly be expected that the most covetous 
will let go their grasp of wealth and its power, — such 
would be analogous to the camel passing through the eye 
of the needle, — or that the most discordant and vicious 
will harmonize ; but such extreme evils will regulate 
themselves. But there is a class, possessing medium 
external wealth and internal virtues, that can associ- 
ate, uniting their interests, discarding the power vested 
in the " root of all evil," and place themselves above 
the evil power of capital, and even in the lap of lux- 
ury, without doing the least injustice or inhumanity to 
any one. Said Jesus, " Seek first the kingdom of 
heaven." A small community, of the most indigent 
poor, harmoniously united, giving the rule to God, to 
love and wisdom, suffering wrong rather than doing 



if. 229 

wrong, would place themselves in possession of a fund 
of wealth not possessed by the millionnaire. It is for 
those wise enough and good enough thus to unite, and 
build up a kingdom of heaven, while those who must 
do their work of destruction. 



IF. 

A writer for the papers thus reasons : " If the char- 
acter of the public institutions of a country is a fair 
criterion by which to judge of the civilization of its 
people, the United States certainly occupies a high po- 
sition;" and then goes on in a very self-complacent 
style to eulogize on the number, magnitude and style, 
of the insane hospitals and pauper houses of his coun- 
try, the United States. 

If the acme of civilization is to be measured by its 
paupers, fools and madmen, which make a necessity 
for these institutions, is civilization a state to be de- 
sired ? Is it not one rather to be deplored ? If these 
institutions are not an indication of their necessity, are 
not those who build them either fools or madmen ? Is 
there not a civilization that will measure its height by 
the absence of these institutions and their want ; or must 
we let the people have the name civilization to denote 
degeneration, and we use some other word to denote 
regeneration and true civilization? There is certainly 
something to grow up in men's hearts that shall super- 
sede the necessity, not only of insane hospitals, pauper 
houses, blind, deaf and dumb institutions, but all hos- 
pitals, arsenals, war-ships, and the ten thousand other 
evils that afflict the race. 

Those who choose not to remove the cause of the 
evil must remain in the evil which will overwhelm 
20 



230 IS IT RIGHT, IS IT POLICY, TO DO SO? 

them, burying them with their false institutions, which 
are the cause of all this mischief. But those who wish 
to save and be saved must " come out " and separate 
themselves from these evil forces, and rely on the 
internal power of good, the God in man, to save. 



IS IT RIGHT, IS IT POLICY, TO DO SO ? 

To-day, December 7th, one who has been a prisoner 
here since October 8th, has been taken into court and 
discharged, * he proving himself- entirely disconnected 
with the crime with which he was charged. Since he 
has been here, some fifteen dollars, his little all, have 
been pilfered from him by another prisoner, who was 
discharged before him, and he is turned into the street, 
without friends, or even one dollar, to help himself 
with. His occupation was that of a seaman, and prob- 
ably he knows but little of land labor to earn a live- 
lihood. The river is closed with ice, and the roads 
covered with snow, and he has to travel at least thirty 
miles to Bath, and perhaps double that distance, beg- 
ging his food as he goes, before he can get to his 
watery element, where he can earn his bread, fie 
has not money enough to pay his railroad fare, and, it 
is more than probable, is clad unsuitably to the season. 

Who will answer me this is right ? No one will 
assert it. Then why not make it right ? Why not 
remunerate at least for the time thus spent? If the 
good of the whole require that the guilty should be 
punished, and that the innocent should be detained 
that the guilty may be selected from them, or caught, 
then at least make restitution for that time. Is it not 
policy to do so ? Does society wish to protect them- 
selves, and save from evil ? Ought not this man, 



IS IT RIGHT, IS IT POLICY, TO DO SO? 231 

and all others in such circumstances, to be relieved ? 
They think to render evil to overcome evil ; but shall 
they be the creators of it where it does not now exist, 
that it may react on them, and they on it again, thus 
burying, if possible, the good under the baneful influ- 
ence? Men must be blind? indeed, if they cannot see 
that the tendency of such a course is to increase crime, 
and it must be impolitic to increase it, especially when 
the whole are involved in the increase pecuniarily and 
socially ; the few only who administer such laws reap- 
ing a temporary pecuniary advantage, while all suffer 
so much in every other sense. 

If men could philosophize on morals or evil, as they 
do on anything else in nature, science or art, they 
would take an opposite or good to overcome evil in all 
cases. 

Can they not be learned that they reap what they sow, 
— not only reap to others directly, but reap to them- 
selves directly, and then, by the reaction from others 
also, reaping evil or good, according to the seed cast, 
and that the harvest is more sure and abundant in 
either case, good or evil, if sown on others than sown 
on themselves? Ye who doubt it, try it. Evil has 
been and is being sown, even for good, and much more 
so for evil, and the increase of evil is certainly more 
than barely perceptible, and now, for a season at least, 
let all the evil remain with you, and sow good to all, 
and see if more than a golden harvest is not gathered. 

October %th. — This man returned to the jail last 
evening, and begged admission and permission to re- 
turn to his cell for a night's lodging, having nowhere 
else to lay his head. (How truly might Jesus say, 
" I have not where to lay my head " ! ) And to-day 
he is sent away with one dollar in his pocket, from his 
fellow-prisoners, to pay his fare to the seaport. As I 



232 TOLERATION. INTOLERATION. 

apprehended, he was destitute of clothing, and the 
jailer gave him a coat. 



TOLERATION. — INTOLERATION. 

The day I came from my prison quarters, I en- 
gaged our City Hall of its overseer for two or three 
successive evenings to lecture to the people free, pay- 
ing for the hall from my own pocket. I gave notice 
of my first lecture, which was on " Free Love," and 
lectured to a full house, who, with a very slight ex- 
ception, were very attentive and respectful to me and 
my discourse. Though the subject was so radical, and 
the hall open and free for all classes, not excluding 
boys, there was no disturbance whatever, not even to 
annoy me in the least while speaking, and, when I 
had finished, I asked how many there were in the 
audience who could not allow me to live in their midst, 
with such doctrines, unmolested by them, and requested 
such, if there were such present, to rise ; not one of 
whom did so, signifying their toleration of such doc* 
trines. I then asked how many present there were 
who wished to listen to a lecture on government on the 
following evening, requesting as many as had such a 
desire to express it by rising. Almost or quite the 
entire audience rose. Such was the toleration of the 
people who were candid enough to listen. But next 
arose the city marshal, who had his orders, previous 
to the lecture, saying the mayor of the city requested 
him to say that the hall would not be opened to any 
more of " these " lectures. Such is the mtolerance of 
government and its dupes who will not hear. This 
same hall is opened, I do not know, but I may say, 



TOLERATION. — INTOLERATION. 233 

without reserve, to any catchpenny Jim Crow concert, 
or jugglery exhibition, that chances along. And, al- 
though there is a law on the statute books expressly 
forbidding Saturday evening amusement, still I have 
known this hall to be opened repeatedly, as on other 
evenings, which at best can only amuse at the expense 
of the pocket, and truly refined morals and manners. 
And, further, this hall is opened for church fairs, 
which to me seem very far from promoting public 
wealth, health and morals, especially the late suppers 
of confectionery, cake, and oysters, and the grab-bags, 
wheels of fortune, ring-cakes, and petty lotteries. If 
such were not under the all-purifying eye of the 
church, our city marshal might well couple these en- 
tertainments, in his report, with " beer shops " and 
" lotteries," and suggest that our city fathers remove 
them altogether, not by a greater evil, but by dis- 
countenancing such in toto. 

It is the iniquity in high places that the people really 
have to fear, and not the good in a despised individual 
any more than in the despised Nazarene of eighteen 
centuries since. 

I do not say the church should not have the City 
Hall to exhibit and hawk her rag babies in ; if that is 
the height of her ambition, let her enjoy it ; the whole 
fraternity, in their ignorance, had better thus busy 
themselves than do worse. But I do say, if James 
A. Clay and others wish for the hall to give and 
receive instruction how to propagate decent " live 
babies," they have an undoubted (in their minds) 
right to have it. I say " right to have it." I have 
no forced or sword right, but a moral right, which, 
though now denied, shall in future be acknowledged ; 
but, ere that time comes, a mount like that of 
" Olives " may be consecrated to the sacred object. 
20* 



234 " COME OUT, AND BE YE SEPARATE.** 



« COME OUT AND BE YE SEPARATE." 

This is what must be done by those who would be 
saved. The good must be separated from the evil, if 
there be any good ; — the good to do its work by good, 
and the evil to do its work by evil. They are two 
separate and distinct principles, and cannot work to- 
gether in harmony. The good cannot take a part in 
the evil without becoming evil. And the evil cannot 
possibly take part in the good. " Ye are servants to 
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey." " Ye 
cannot serve God and Mammon." No minister of 
good can administer evil without falling, or becoming 
evil. And no minister of evil hath good to adminis- 
ter. The disciple who preaches Christ on the Sab- 
bath, to make his hearers Ghristlike, must not preach 
the law on Monday for the same thing, or any other 
thing. The lawless will retain the law, while they are 
lawless, for their own destruction. Those under a 
higher law must live in obedience to that law, if they 
would win the lawless to that law, or even save them- 
selves from evils of the law and lawless. No sword in 
one hand, and olive-branch in the other. The latter 
loses its power when the former is seen. Peace or 
war, one or the other ; the latter to destroy, the former 
to save. Do we follow Jesus? It is our "life in one 
hand," ready to yield it up on the altar of truth and 
righteousness, and the gospel of love in the other ; the 
latter a thousand times more dear than the former. 

No matter if our brother Paul did tell us "The 
powers that be are ordained of God." He was mis- 
taken if he meant the present military power that rules 
the earth, or any part of the earth. God never or- 
dained any other power than his own, which is love. 



u COME 0U2, AND BE YE SEPARATE.'' 285 

Which of the two Eastern powers, now arrayed against 
each other, are of God ? Not both, certainly ; for that 
would be God arrayed against himself, and, if either, 
he is suffering great loss. Was the English or Brit* 
ish power of God, and the American too ? It would 
be God arrayed against himself? Certainly he must 
fall if the prediction of Jesus be true, that " A house 
arrayed against itself cannot stand." Is the Amer- 
ican power ordained of God ? What, the Mexican in- 
vasion and bloodshed all by God, or the Greytown 
affair ? What, the slave of the south and its allied 
power of the north ordained of God? Away with 
such ; it has no foundation in truth any more than 
murder has a foundation in righteousness. Now, as 
men of common sense, even if you deny Christianity, 
separate the two principles of action. Let them who 
will, destroy, but, ye who wish to be saved, as Chris- 
tians, " come out, and be separate." Let the evil do 
their work of evil, and you do yours of good. 

If Jesus did tell you to let the wheat and tares 
grow together, he did not tell you to grow tares on 
wheat ; and beware how you do it, lest, when the har- 
vest comes, you be burned as tares. A tree is known 
by its fruit ; so is grain by its seed. 

Do men want practical illustrations of the efficacy 
of the principle of good to overcome evil, when it is 
all good, or all love ; they have it in what is called 
the Washingtonian temperance movement, which had its 
origin with a reformed drunkard in Baltimore. Never 
did temperance make such rapid strides as then, and 
the work would still have been onward, or it would 
have swept the destroyer from our land ere this, but 
for the amalgamation of the law or sword power. Had 
all those who were saved by love used the same and 
no other power to save their brother, I could not to- 



236 " COME OUT, AND BE %M SEFAEAXE. ;? 

day have sat at my window, in my prison home in 
your capital, and witnessed such marks of degradation 
as I do ; nor would I be disturbed, at the dead hours 
of night, with the fiendlike yell of those made demon* 
like by intoxication. All this I have to witness, and 
more too, or blind my eyes and close my ears. A 
woman — yes, a mother — has been (in a beastly 
state of intoxication) entombed within these walls 
since I have been here, and a man too, whose cries were 
more like those of a demon in the bottomless pit than 
those of a human being — ■ being reformed by a loving 
brother band. This is not in Algiers, where none but 
ruffians live and rule, but in America — enlightened 
America — in the capital of the State of Maine, the 
fame of whose celebrated " Liquor Law " is heralded 
even to other climes. I find no fault with the men 
who made these. They have done the best they could ; 
but now it is time to do better. I would not inten- 
tionally say one word to excite anger ; — too much is 
already in the human breast ; — but I wish to bring 
their minds to the light, or the light to their minds, 
that they may discover the difference between the 
two powers of good and evil, that the former may sep- 
arate from the latter ; that the one may do its work 
of destruction, if such must be done, and that the 
other may do its mighty work of salvation. Then I 
say, " Come out ; be ye separate ; " lest the judgments 
of the wicked fall on your heads, as they surely do, 
and must, while you in any way participate in the 
evil. 

As long as we are members of an infected body, 
we suffer the infections of that body, though we try 
ever so hard to become more pure ; nor need we think 
we can be members of a corrupt government, and still 
members of Christ's body, or God's government. We 



"SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 237 

must cleave to one, and forsake the other. It is per- 
fectly useless that we flatter ourselves that we can be 
members of both ; for it is certain that they have no 
fellowship with each other. 



"SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OE HEAVEN." 

Mankind fail to heed this wise admonition, and 
make the kingdom of heaven of secondary importance, 
or put it far away in the distant future, as something 
not to be realized in this life, and therefore toil on and 
on, day after day, year after year, age after age, never 
realizing their fond anticipations. Until they honor 
this injunction of Jesus, and make the spiritual king- 
dom, or the kingdom of heaven, the pattern for the 
earthly, they will do as ever has been done, build to 
demolish themselves, or on a foundation that will fail 
them when they most need permanency. 

Has not mankind had sufficient admonition in the 
world's past history, to induce them to act more wisely 
than to rely for security on kingdoms or governments 
not of heaven but of the sword ; or must the earth 
again be deluged with blood by those who oft repeat 
the prayer, " Thy will be done on earth," ere the king- 
dom of heaven is realized ? Jesus called it the king- 
dom of heaven in contradistinction to the kingdoms of 
earth, that had their foundation on the sword or evil 
power. It is a spiritual kingdom, and has a being in 
the internal life, and joins by affinity, love or attrac- 
tion, instead of relying on the sword or an external 
force of evil ; and such a kingdom alone can withstand 
the shock that is to come. All others must totter and 
crumble back to from whence they came. Republics, 



238 "SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." 

relying on the same external power for their being, are 
equally insecure with the monarchial. The past has 
not spared them ; neither will the future. " They that 
take the sword shall perish by the sword," is a saying 
which was true in the beginning, has been verified in 
all past time, and will remain a truth time without end. 

" Take no thought for the morrow," is an injunction 
that will be understood and appreciated when the 
kingdom of heaven is made the first in importance in 
our search. Let us imagine a community or nation 
which has first sought the kingdom of heaven, and see if 
all " these things " which mankind need are not " add- 
ed " to them. 

The kingdom of heaven is to overcome all present 
kingdoms, with their military and naval power, and with 
these the moneyed power, and remove all the many 
motives to evil which are caused by their influence. And 
then all the waste of energy and human life which is 
suffered in the grasp for gold will be obviated, and the 
efforts of man, wisely directed, shall add to his store so 
bounteously that he really shall have his wants supplied 
without taking thought or trouble about the- morrow. 
Quite half the efforts of the race are now expended on 
the kingdoms of earth, and the efficiency of man is cer- 
tainly reduced one half by such kingdoms, and yet there 
is a sufficiency for all. What must there be when man 
has sought and obtained the kingdom of heaven ? 

This kingdom is not to be sought after afar off in 
foreign lands, or dependent on such for a being, but at 
home, in our own bosoms, in our own country, and has 
its protection in its own innate goodness, and not in 
any external force of evil. It is a principle of internal 
life, that is to radiate until it encircles the world. It 
is from in, outwards, a centre whose circumference is 
without limit or end. Other kingdoms live only in 



"BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT." 239 

external form, of limited circumference, sustained by 
external force, which destroys themselves. 



"BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT." 

We do a great mischief when we teach that there 
cannot be such a state as human perfection, - — " perfect 
as our heavenly Father." We pull down our standard, 
lay it in the dust where the " serpent " crawls, and 
content ourselves to live there, die there with him ; in 
fact, less God-like in many respects, for there is a 
degree of peace, quietness and happiness, in the reptile 
world, that man is unacquainted with. Would we rise 
above this chaos, this tumbling to and fro, this agita- 
tion of wars and corresponding destructiveness, we 
must take our standard from out the dust, shake its 
folds to the breeze, and on it let the words be seen, 
" Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which 
is in heaven is perfect ; " not feel there is a curse 
ever to rest upon us because our mother Eve sinned, 
and that we are ever, like the meanest reptile, to seek 
protection and sustenance from the bowels of the earth. 

There is a God ; we are " his temples ;" and when we 
cleanse and purify ourselves, he will take up his abode 
there, greatly to our happiness. And how shall we be 
perfect? Not by defiling our bodies with inflaming 
drinks, poisoning narcotics, diseased flesh or unwhole- 
some vegetables, any more than otherwise violat- 
ing the laws of life and health. To be a perfect spir- 
itual being we must first be a perfect physical being. 
When, if ever, we arrive to the state that a " deadly 
poison " will not harm us, it is when the spiritual life 
prevails and has supreme control of the functions of 



240 " BE YE THEREFORE PERFECT." 

the physical ; and but few of us, I fear, have thus far 
advanced. When it is thus with us, fasting even 
forty days, will not harm us. While we are under the 
physical law, we must, to do the best, obey the physi- 
cal law, — " keep the temple a fit place for the Holy 
Ghost to dwell in." We must not think to inflame 
our blood with the drinks of Bacchus, and possess the 
mind and disposition of Jesus. And let us not think 
the only bacchanalian or destructive habits are those 
of drinking wine, but cease all the war with our own 
natures, physical as well as spiritual, and we shall learn 
that we can fulfil the command of Jesus, " Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is 
perfect." 

We must be perfect to be saved in the sense taught 
by Jesus. We are deceived when we suppose he can 
save us in our sins ; it must be from our sins, if any 
salvation. And to be saved from our sins is to live in 
obedience to the laws of God, physical, moral and 
spiritual. Whether we begin with the physical, and 
through that attain the moral and spiritual, or begin 
with the spiritual, and through that attain the moral 
and physical, it matters not, if we learn and obey the 
laws, which we must do, else have visited on us the 
judgments consequent on the transgression of the laws 
of God. As individual bodies, when out of the law of 
love and harmony, we are dissolved or destroyed ; so 
as communities, states, nations, or the world. It is 
through a merciful law that it is so. Better, far bet- 
ter, that the spirit and body dissolve their union, and 
each find their allied bodies, than that such discord and 
commotion as now prevail should continue. How often 
does poor, crushed humanity wail at her lot, and ask, 
Why am I here thus to strive and suffer a few short years, 
made long by suffering, and then pass away I know not 



TO THE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE. 241 

where ? How oft in my boyhood days have I asked 
myself why — 0, why ? I see all now, and can give 
light where there is light ; but to those who are cast out 
into utter darkness this light cannot reach, but their 
own darkness must overcome their darkness, that there 
may nothing be left but light, when God will be all 
in all. 

The kingdom of heaven, to which we are all draw- 
ing, or from which we are scattering, is to be in this 
earth (said the passage, "thy will be done on earth"), 
and we that wish a part in it must remember the say- 
ing, " Be ye therefore perfect. " 



"TO THEM THAT ARE PURE ALL THINGS ARE PURE." 

"All things pure." Our brother Paul makes a 
wide sweep in saying all things, but none too wide, 
though it embraces all impurity, for all impurity can- 
not in the least affect purity ; but purity sees in impu- 
rity its own destruction, so that to " the pure all things 
are pure." 

Not so with the impure, but exactly the reverse. 
They feel and know their own impurity, and with their 
gangrened or impure eyes they look on others, in 
whom, though pure as the driven snow, they witness 
nothing but impurity, therefore judge and condemn all 
as impure. Hence the saying of Jesus, " Judge not ; " 
he knowing well that men must render such judgments 
as were on themselves. Like one looking through col- 
ored glass, the object seen is colored, or one peering 
through smoke, all looks smoky. We always judge as 
we are judged. The judgment or condemnation must 
first be on us for our own transgressions, else we could 
21 



242 "I WILL HA YE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE. 5 ^ 

not judge others except charitably, which would be 
without condemnation or punishment. When we our- 
selves cease to transgress and incur judgments, we shall 
cease to judge. Then shall we cease, by being freed of 
righteous judgments, to visit unrighteous ones on our 
brother man, and then can we say, as did Paul, " To 
them that are pure all things are pure," and, further, 
" To them that are impure all things are impure." 



" I WILL HAVE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE/ 5 

Yes, my friendly reader, God, who is all mercy, 
" will have mercy, and not sacrifice." He calls for 
mercy, mercy, from us to our fellow-beings ; and what- 
ever we bestow on them is on us. It is pleasing in his 
sight to see a merciful man. He is merciful to all. 
" The rain falls and the sun shines alike on the just 
and unjust ;" and, would we be like him, we must be 
merciful to all. 

Do we wish to become like God, we must love all. 
" No robbery to be equal with God." We can have 
all the goodness possible, all the power ever bestowed 
on a being, and still not diminish the Fountain of all 
goodness. The unmerciful man has the reaction of his 
own spirit on himself. " I will have mercy." God 
will have mercy. The unmerciful will destroy them- 
selves by their unmercifulness, that only the merciful 
remain. God has implanted in us the law of our own 
government, — life for the merciful, death for the un- 
merciful, — not by any sudden and malicious laws, but 
by a merciful law, that all out of the divine law of love 
and harmony shall close up in death, that God, who is 
merciful, may be " all in all." 



"NOW IS THE JUDGMENT OF THIS WORLD." 243 

Reader, did you ever bestow what you supposed to 
be a blessing on a brother man, and in return receive 
or feel an inward satisfaction, — a pleasant glow of 
life ? It was a reality, a new spring to the life, that 
is lengthened by the kind deed. So much of such as 
you cherish adds to your life. As you cultivate, and 
live in obedience to, such a spirit, you cultivate and 
lengthen your own life, besides making it more cheer- 
ful and happy, and adding blessings to all connected 
with you. 

" And not sacrifice." God requires of us no sacri- 
fices of bullocks, lambs, or of our fellow-beings, to be 
slain or punished for his or our good. If any choose 
to offer themselves to appease a wrathful God, having 
a being only in their own diseased imagination, let 
them do so, while we offer " ourselves a living sacri- 
fice, holy and acceptable," on the altar of all truth. 



"NOW IS THE JUDGMENT OF THIS WORLD." 

And not of this world only, but of every particle 
of matter in the world. God did not make a world 
to trouble himself about judging at some future time. 
His judgments are as swift and as sure as the trans- 
gressions. He is not one that puts off the evil day, 
except by obedience, which puts it far, far away out 
of his own reach even. He grants no license to sin ; 
nor can any purged witness stand at his bar, and abate 
judgment. No plea of " hallucination or insanity " 
will enable the convict to escape an impartial sentence. 

It is death if we sin, it is life if we obey, though 
the thunders of all earth's combined artilleries point at 
us with their surest aim. If we are founded on the 



244 THE LIGHT OY LOTE AND ALL LIFE, 

rock, we are safe ; if not, we fall. Though, as a na- 
tion, our forts are as numerous as the stars, and as 
well manned as they are numerous ; or, as individuals., 
we are flanked on either side with numbers too vast to 
count, and books held sacred from time immemorial for 
authority, — no matter for all this power to save, we 
must obey the great law of love or attraction in every 
particle, in every congregated particle, of matter ; or 
we must resolve back, be destroyed, and form new 
combinations in love and harmony, which is destruc- 
tion to the present form. Whether this be as nations, 
states, individuals, or individual particles of which our 
bodies are composed, the same universal law of love 
must be obeyed. Nations not held together by it are 
in commotion ; states do not escape it ; individuals suf- 
fer its transgressions, and particles of matter of which 
individuals are composed are in a state of constant 
eruption. 

Whether we begin to harmonize with the nation, or 
the whole world, and go down to the most minute par- 
ticles, or commence with the particles and go up to 
the nations, or begin with ourselves as individual 
beings, and go up to the nations and down to the par- 
ticles, the work must be done, else destruction to us is 
inevitable* 



THE LIGHT OP LOVE AND ALL LIFE. 

This light is to shine and give light where there is 
light, and will shine into darkness ; but the darkness 
comprehends it not, but will remain darkness. Sin 
will remain sin until it puts away all sin by its own 
destruction, while light shines into light until all shall 
be light, — that is, until " God shall be ail in alL'* 



THE LIGHT OF LOVE AND ALL LIFE. 245 

This will fulfil the saying of Jesus, "To him that 
hath I will give, and from him that hath not shall be 
taken even that which he hath ; " a hard saying to 
those who know not God, but beautiful to those who 
know his love, power, wisdom, and goodness. It is 
wisdom to the wise, but foolishness to the foolish ; it 
is goodness to the good, but evil to the evil ; justice to 
the just, but injustice to the unjust ; it is mercy to the 
merciful, but judgment to those that judge. Yet, for 
all this, God is all wisdom, goodness, justice, and 
mercy. 

There is no evil to them who think no evil ; there 
is no good to them who think there is no goodness. 
Evil cannot see goodness, but goodness sees the work- 
ings of evil to overcome itself, therefore sees goodness 
in evil. Where evil is, there has been transgression, 
which must be overcome by good, or destroyed by 
itself, else God could not be " all in all." Nor could 
the good destroy the evil by evil without partaking of 
the evil, which would still leave a greater or less 
amount of evil to be destroyed; thus, by this mode, 
we should never be freed from evil. We must sepa- 
rate the two principles, and give each its separate 
sphere of action, — good to overcome evil by good- 
ness, and evil to overcome itself by destruction. We, 
as good, need not take a part in evil to destroy, for the 
law of dissolution is within itself, and we become a 
part of the body to be destroyed if we think this the 
only way to save. We are darkness ourselves, into 
which the light shineth, and we comprehend it not, and 
must remain dark, to be overcome by more gross dark- 
ness in destruction, else be saved by a more intense 
light. Nor, as good, need we take any part with the 
evil to save ourselves ; for the law of salvation is in 
21* 



246 THE LIGHT OF LOV£ AND ALL LfF& 

the good internally, and not in any external force of 
evil. 

I may repeat, in substance, the foregoing sentiments 
times without number, and hope I may be pardoned 
for so doing ; for the world wants line upon line, and 
precept upon precept, ere they receive in practice the 
philosophy which to me is as simple as the law of 
gravitation. 

" A stumbling-block of offence/' said Paul. It is 
known that darkness becomes more intense after hav- 
ing been led by a light that we do not keep up with. 
They that are not able to follow the light, and become 
all light, must be overtaken or destroyed in the dark- 
ness, else God could not be all in all. 

How plainly to the point was the language of Jesus f 
" Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good " I The language tells us, if we can credit h% 
that evil is a vortex to overcome us if we meddle 
with it. I repeat, good must remain good unalloyed 
to overcome evil by good, else it becomes evil, and only 
overcomes itself in its own destruction. 

Now, if we suppose ourselves good, we may be sure 
we are failing when we in any way encourage the 
overcoming of evil with evil. We have a standard 
by Jesus, the best known to me, which is carrying out 
the law in ourselves, — which is the highest law we 
can live by, be it salvation or destruction, — "As ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto 
them." I will try to explain it, giving a more prac- 
tical interpretation : If ye are under the law of death, 
and wish for self-destruction, then destroy to save ; 
but remember, the measure ye mete is measured to 
you again, be it life or death, good or evil. If we 
think to do evil, we are yet under the law of evih 



THE LIGHT OF LOTE AND ALL LIFE. 247 

Salvation has nothing to do with destruction, not even 
to think it would like to destroy. It sees in evil its 
own destruction by a merciful law. There is security 
for the good, and redemption for the evil in forgive- 
ness, which is the true philosophy, however great the 
sin. " I forgive : go, and sin no more." There would 
be magic in such words coming from a heart magnet- 
ized by love. But, above all, do not think to cast out 
devils by Beelzebub, the Prince of devils. If you 
have such a thought, stay your hand, while you think 
again, and remember " a house divided against itself 
cannot stand." 

If we think our course that of salvation, then take 
to ourselves the measure we mete to others, and we 
will soon know whether it be good or evil. Let all 
who think they do good by doing evil, do the evil 
to themselves, and they shall do more good or less 
evil than to do the evil to others; for evil done to 
ourselves, if we are good, is overcome by the good of 
our own natures ; therefore less harm is done than to 
do evil to the evil, which reacts on us and the world 
at large. 

What oceans of human blood have been spilled for 
the want of this philosophy ! What a conqueror 
would Napoleon have been, with his love, and power 
of endurance, and commanding forces, if this principle 
had been established in his heart ! The time that 
he was engaged in his wars would have subdued the 
earth, and made it a paradise. His nation and this 
nation have yet to learn this philosophy of overcoming 
evil with good, else will be verified in them the saying, 
" They took the sword, and perished by the sword." 

Once establish this true philosophy, which is the 
science of all science in overcoming hurtful force, and 



248 THE LIGHT OF LOVE AND ALL LIFE. 

the world is saved from the rule of the sword ; and 
when they are saved from that rule, they will under- 
stand another rule, as much more wise and beautiful 
as this world is more desirable than the endless hell 
which we have been taught to shun in the future. 



CHAPTER X. 

"BE NOT OVERCOME OF EVIL, BUT OVERCOME 
EVIL WITH GOOD." 

Once admit the truthfulness of the principle of for- 
giveness toward offenders, and a non-resistance of evil, 
always meeting such with good, and we have premises 
which, if retained in practice, must revolutionize the 
world. I say non-resistance. It is all resistance ; it 
is the arm of God — Almighty power, and without it 
there is no power but to destroy. The world is a 
charnel-house, one of destruction and utter desolation 
and death, in its attempts to overcome evil with evil. 
Well did Jesus say, " Be not overcome of evil, but 
overcome evil with good," knowing that evil would 
overcome those who tampered with it, and that good 
alone could overcome it and save. Only admit the 
premises, and all injurious or retaliatory force must at 
once give way to mild means of restraint. From the 
conqueror's cannon-roar to the state's loathsome dun- 
geon, the assassin's knife, or even the harsh denuncia- 
tion, all must give way. It is one system throughout, 
false or true in all ; and we may go behind all these 
to the Deity himself, and place his laws with the rest, 
just, right, and good, to punish us with a future hell, 
and torment us with fears, if it be so for us to punish 
those who offend us. The one is equally productive 
of good or evil as is the other. In fact, the one is the 
offspring of the other. There is a law of destruction 



250 "BE NOT OVERCOME OF EVIL," ETC. 

for good. When we have so far transgressed the laws 
of God as to become uninfluenced by the divine prin- 
ciples of love, then we are under the law of destruc- 
tion, — a law which is in us, not a law of God, of love, 
which always creates and saves, but never destroys, 
but a law of evil, which always destroys. Though the 
law be evil, its finale is good, inasmuch as it destroys 
the evil which is so deep-laid as to be uninfluenced by 
the good. Nor does this detract from the power of 
God, or good. It is only a law in reserve, of self- 
destruction, evil by evil, that good may have no hand 
in destroying that which is not worth preserving. It 
should always be borne in mind that evil only over- 
comes itself by destruction, and that we, as good, can 
have no hand in this mode of overcoming without 
lowering ourselves — becoming evil. This we will 
do for protection or retaliation only as we are wanting 
in faith in God, or the good. A knowledge of God 
will give us faith in him. A faith in him is to have 
his presence and protection. If ancient record can be 
credited in this matter, men were protected from the 
fire's heat and the lion's grasp by a supreme or spirit- 
ual power; and, in later times, other wonders have 
been performed through the same power. It is no 
more a stretch of my imagination to believe that 
Jesus, through his spiritual power, calmed the troubled 
waters, and walked on them, than to believe what I now 
hear reiterated as the doings of spirits; not having 
personally witnessed either myself. If, in olden time, 
God was present with those who were obedient to his 
laws, may he not be so in modern time ? With him, 
then, there is no partial or special law for that or this 
age. His are universal law i, immutable, unchangeable. 
We need, then, only to conform to those laws to have 
his presence and protection, and assistance to perform 



"BE NOT OVERCOME OF EVIL," ETC. 251 

what has ever been performed. Said Jesus, "If ye 
believe, the work I do ye shall do, and a greater work." 
Though the work was based on belief, the belief being 
based on the knowledge of the law by which the works 
were performed, makes the whole really based on 
knowledge or wisdom, which can rest only with love, 
harmony, and all other attributes of the Deity. In- 
spiration can only be received in the ratio that one 
harmonizes with God or Nature. 

I will try to illustrate this matter of belief and 
ability to do, by a figure. The power is in steam to 
move whatever weight we wish to, but a belief in that 
fact is of no avail without a knowledge of how to ap- 
ply it. In fact, I am doubtful of the ability to believe 
through another's representation until the fact is seen, 
unless there be power innate to comprehend, which is 
the knowledge or wisdom on which to found the belief. 
We may have a vague sense of the power of steam 
from another's representation, yet until we see its work- 
ings, or have a knowledge within ourselves, an imprint 
in our minds of the whys and wherefores, we are in 
doubt, and fear its useful application will not be 
realized by the world. 

This figure has a parallel in fact in regard to God 
and his power. Mankind have a vague sense of the 
power of God ; but, not having the knowledge of how 
the power is to be applied, are doubtful of the power, 
at least of its present application, and consent to yield 
it to destruction, and content themselves with a future 
restoration by some miraculous interposition which 
they cannot comprehend, therefore are ever tormented 
with doubts and fears. 

Man is the agent through which God is to do, as 
the engine is the agent through which the steam is to 
work, and the application of the steam to a perfect 



252 " BE NOT OVERCOME OF EVIL," ETC. 

engine finds infinitely more then its parallel in the 
application of love to human beings. Say not that 
man is so depraved that the cases are not parallel. 
There yet remains in man the principle to be acted 
upon which is to completely revolutionize and redeem 
the race. If there be no such hope, then may we 
well enlarge the borders of the war in the East, and 
make the entire world a more active slaughter-house, 
and sooner finish the work of death there progressing ; 
— stop not until "total depravity" ceases to be, 
having destroyed itself ; for the world is wanted for a 
more benevolent purpose then to perpetuate total de- 
pravity. 

But, say the popular religionists, " we want to 
Christianize the human family, and not send them into 
the presence of their Creator in their sins." This is it ; 
we want to Christianize the human family, and have 
them understand they are now in his presence, and 
that they have nothing to fear from him either, but 
everything to hope for ; for he is worthy of their love, 
as they shall know when they understand him. He is 
love, wisdom, power ; all of which they may be — must 
be, else destroy themselves. They have only to fear 
their own perverted passions. It is of the utmost im- 
portance that we have a just conception of God and 
his laws, that what he is we may be. We assimilate 
ourselves to the beings we worship, be they those of 
fancy or otherwise ; and as we fancy the relation of 
God is to us, so is ours to our inferiors, if we have 
such. If we have an idea that God requires sacrifices, 
we require them. If he be revengeful or jealous, we 
justly suppose we may be so too. He being the 
fountain, how can we the stream rise higher ? 

Men may be better then the God that others conjure 
up for them, in whom they cannot believe, and whom 



" AS YE FORGIVE, SO ARE YE FORGIVEN." 253 

they cannot love or reverence ; but they must assimi- 
late themselves to the being they worship, be it good 
or bad ; hence the importance of a good God, and a 
just conception of him. 

God is no medley of two opposite principles, good 
and evil, love and hatred, wisdom and foolishness, 
power and weakness, freedom and bondage, life and 
death. And if he be no two opposite or inharmonious 
principles, he must be all of one or the other. The 
latter he cannot be, therefore he must be of the for- 
mer — all good, all wise, all powerful, all freedom, all 
life. Now admit, which we must, that God is love, 
and we have in love, which is God, all these good 
attributes. Love, which we must keep in mind is 
God, inspires with wisdom, gives us power to perform, 
makes us free to act, and creates in us new life. In 
fact, all life is created by or through God or love. 
x\nd the shortness of human life is because it was not 
created in 'the deepest love. No angry, unloving, 
jealous passion, that does not detract from human life ; 
hence the necessity of being kind, forgiving, loving, in 
order that we may live, and hasten the time when there 
shall be no more death, but that God shall be " all in 
all." 



"AS YE FORGIVE, SO ARE YE FORGIVEN." 

" Forgive us our trespasses " is a prayer of little 
moment when we have it not in our hearts to " forgive 
those who trespass against us." If we cannot forgive, 
we do not enjoy the luxury of forgiveness, though we 
utter the prayer as often as we breathe. On the 
other hand, the forgiveness is as sure to be felt by us 
for our transgressions, as we are able to feel it towards 
22 



254 "AS YE FORGIVE, SO ARE YE FORGIVEN," 

others for theirs. As we forgive, so are we forgiven. 
"The measure we mete is measured to us again." 
We always have a right to claim the same charity 
that we extend, and ought to extend the same that we 
would have bestowed on us ; and who, pray tell me, 
would have inflicted on themselves punishment for 
their misdeeds ? None but the insane ; and none but 
the insane will inflict punishments on their fellow- 
beings. To kindly restrain and forgive is God-like, or 
love-like. To chastise is fiend-like — demon-like. 
No matter how many seeming enemies surround us ; no 
matter how many real ones, who are ready to spill our 
blood, quarter our bodies, or burn us at the stake, 
or deprive us of liberty or a reputation that is ever so 
dear ; if we have it in our hearts to forgive them all, we 
have a treasure that outweighs all else, and that can- 
not yield, but will save and protect us, or bear our 
spirits off in triumph. 

This is what we may have and enjoy when we for- 
give ; and what may we not expect for our offending 
brother whom we forgive? To truthfully picture the 
benefits to be derived by the recipient of forgiveness, is 
the work for a greater than I — of one whose heart is 
more fully stored with the inestimable riches of love 
and kindness ; but I cannot forbear to say, go to yon- 
der criminal bar or prison, and take the erring bro- 
ther by the hand, and say to him, we " forgive;" " go 
and sin no more." I say, let this be the universal 
practice, and my word for it, as well as your Christian 
doctrine, crime will very sensibly diminish. 

" Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with 
good, " is a beautiful saying, the practice of which is 
said to be impracticable by those who oft repeat the 
precepts. But how else, pray tell me, is evil to be 
overcome, except by its opposite ? In no other way 



NAPOLEON. 255 

but by the destruction of the parties in whom the 
evil exists, and in this none but the evil can have a 
hand without engendering evil in themselves. We 
must let evil kill out evil by its own destructiveness, or 
else overcome it with good. We will be " overcome 
with evil," unless we " overcome evil with good, " 
else the philosopher might have said " Do not over- 
come evil with evil, " instead of saying as he did, " Be 
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.' , 

Is it not time — ay, high time — that Christian 
people who form a state or nation should have that 
state or nation conform to Christian precept and 
practice? Or is the name of Christ only a burlesque? 
If the name be so, the transgression of the law of love, 
kindness, and forgiveness, taught by Jesus, has not 
nor will prove a burlesque to us, or, if so, a sad one, 
whether committed by nations, states or individuals, 
— whether under the eye of the clergy with their ap- 
proval and prayers, or away in the lonely haunts of vice. 

Were nations wise, they would set such examples 
of forbearance towards offenders as they would have 
their subjects set for those over whom they have pow- 
er. All is evil that inflicts punishment to overcome 
evil. Men do wrong because they are unhappy, and 
ignorant of the right that would make them happy; 
and the wrong is not righted by making them more 
unhappy. All are seeking happiness, and but few 
find it, because they seek it unwisely ; and they may 
not fully enjoy it because of the ignorance that sur- 
rounds them. 



NAPOLEON. 



I have been reading of Napoleon to-day, and can but 
admire the spirit of wisdom, energy, and tact, which 



256 NAPOLEON. 

characterized him throughout his victorious campaigns. 
I honor his humanity to his soldiers, and the forgive- 
ness to his enemies when he had subjected them to 
himself; accomplishing much more good by kindness 
than in fierce contest with arms. His was a noble 
soul, but, by an unwise direction of his energies, his 
power was crippled, his proud spirit subdued, and Na- 
poleon the conqueror, so justly honored by the mil- 
lions, died as a banished felon. 

He knew well how to overcome his conquered enemies, 
and make them his friends ; but he did not seem to 
understand that the same power would have conquered 
them also. He loved France as his own fame, and 
became her servant, ready to sacrifice himself, if need 
be so, for her welfare; and she in turn served him to 
the utmost of her capacity. His soldiers were won to 
him by love, bound to him by ties as strong as their 
own lives, and then were handed swords, and led on 
to battle to win and bind the world. Doubtless he 
wished to do the world a good, but he failed to accom- 
plish his great design for the reason that he would do 
that good with evil. He had not learned that he 
could not force the people to accept even a good. The 
force which he used was an evil, that overthrew the 
good he would do. He did not seem to know that 
to extend his love to his far-off foes would be only to 
extend his power there also to overcome them. He 
wanted the admiration, and may have sought the good, 
of the world generally, but he seems not to have 
known that the whole could only be won to him as was 
France, by love. The great power he swayed, though 
it came to him by love, and he would use it to accom- 
plish a good, he would do so by evil, therefore, as must 
all evil, it perished by itself. He had not learned the 
philosophy, or rather to extend the philosophy, taught 



NAPOLEON. 257 

by Jesus, of loving and overcoming the greater as the 
less enemy by good, and that evil would be sure to 
overcome the good if they resorted to it, even £or the 
express purpose of accomplishing a good. 

His love was not universal enough to embrace the 
world he would conquer, and his wisdom was alike 
limited, and his power and endurance also. Who can 
limit one's power whose love has no limits ? And who 
can extend their power beyond their love ? It would 
be a sad state that there should be wisdom, power and 
endurance, exceeding love and goodness. 

Will it be deemed heresy to say that Napoleon's 
power would have equalled that of Jesus if his love 
had been equal ? It is even so ; and it would have 
been beyond the power of his foes to have taken his 
life. It did often seem that his life was saved as by 
miracle ; but it was really a spiritual power of which 
he was possessed. The sagacity with which he watched 
his foes, and the sleepless nights and restless days, could 
only have been endured by one of great spiritual force. 
He seemed to have a spiritual premonition of the coming 
of his opposing armies, which saved him from defeat 
which otherwise seemed inevitable. 

What must have been the result of all the energy of 
this man, his armies and his opposing armies, wisely di- 
rected in the right ? Had he understood the simple phi- 
losophy, that only good can overcome evil, and that ever- 
lasting fame could only be won to him by good, and 
that every evil act would detract its weight from his 
power and his happiness, he would have been in a con- 
dition to have done for the right in a right way what 
he had done for the right in a wrong way. What 
must have been the result, I say, had Napoleon the 
conqueror been Napoleon the true philosopher ? His 
memory would have been as sacred to the wide world 
22* 



258 NAPOLEON. 

as his ashes are to France. I have heard it estimated 
that he and his armies, during the period of his wars, 
could have cut channels which would have watered the 
great desert of Sahara, and made it a perfect garden. 
I conjecture, and not without much plausibility, that 
long, long ere this, the habitable world would have been 
made a garden of Eden, and innocence and purity pre- 
vailed, through the means which he might have swayed. 
How much more pleasant would have been a work of 
redemption than that of destruction! How much 
more beautiful than fighting, slaying, and murdering, 
would have been peace-making, supplying wants and 
educating ! How much more desirable would have 
been a campaign which conquered by love, and left in 
its trail life, liberty and happiness for all ! How 
much more blessed would he and his armies have 
been ! How delightful, as they marched back to their 
native land, instead of repassing the ruins of cities 
and the graves of the slain, and the utter desolation 
which war always leaves behind, to have seen the flow- 
ers bloom in their path, the trees laden with their 
fruit, the fields waving with grain, and heard and felt 
the praises and greetings of loved ones redeemed ! 

Napoleon ! that thou couldst have heard and heeded 
the teachings of nature, and the world have had the 
benefit of thy truthful life ! What gladness would have 
taken the place of sadness ! 

Does one doubt but Napoleon could have marched 
over the entire civilized world, and peacefully con- 
quered as he went, had he been founded on the whole 
truth ? He could have done so with less strife than 
he experienced in a single campaign. With the white 
flag to denote peace, and his followers armed with im- 
plements of husbandry and the useful arts and sciences, 
he could have conquered, far in advance of his march, 



EDUCATION. 259 

even his most inveterate foes. His army would have 
been invincible, and Napoleon the conqueror and con- 
quered, might now justly be styled Napoleon the sa- 
vior and saved. 



EDUCATION. 

There is no subject on which I have written that 
is of more importance to treat of than education, and 
none on which I feel more sensibly my inability to do 
justice ; but I will venture a few remarks which seem 
to me cannot be amiss, though they be very, very far 
from doing the subject justice. 

It is through the means of a true education that the 
human family are to be elevated to their pure posi- 
tion. The whole life, properly, should be a school to 
educate and elevate. The school education which be- 
gins with infancy and ends with the teens, is usually 
of as limited usefulness to its possessor as it is limited 
in extent and duration. 

It is unwise to elevate a portion only, that they 
may live by their wits on the ignorance of another 
portion without physical labor. Such education is 
only partial, making inharmonious beings, as well as 
creating discord with each other. The whole man, 
physical, intellectual and spiritual, must be trained in 
harmony, else we may ever expect the continuance of 
the same discord which now prevails. We boast much 
of our free school system, and the means extant for 
universal knowledge, yet but few, very few, have the 
fortune, if fortune it be, to acquire what is considered 
a liberal education, which, at best, is but a fragment- 
ary affair, or an educating of one part of the man at 
the expense of another. Many of our best men and 



260 EDUCATION. 

women are spoiled, completely unfitted for usefulness 
to society, or pleasure to themselves, in endeavoring 
to give them an education which will enable them to 
live without physical labor. 

It is truthfully said, " The great study of man is 
man." "Know thyself" is an injunction of the great- 
est importance, which, when heeded, will enable us to 
acquire a more perfect education than mankind usually 
think it the lot of universal man to attain. He who 
ransacks the world for food for the mind, and knows 
not his own internal resources, like the Prodigal Son 
may return home, ragged and starved, though sur- 
rounded with the literature of the nineteenth century. 

Schools must be self-supporting, else education can- 
not be perfect or universal, and the uneducated must 
he taxed for their support. Omitting the daughters, 
it would require quite a fortune to give a family of sons 
a collegiate education, and more than any father would 
wish to produce by his own honest industry, and more 
than all can produce in the present order of society ; 
therefore some must remain uneducated, and be taxed 
directly or indirectly to sustain a system of education 
calculated to perpetuate their ignorance. Of what 
service would be the three professions if the mass were 
truly educated ? Ignorance, disease, quarrelling and 
crime, which are but a trio, would no longer pay for 
perpetuating themselves, as they now do in the three 
professions. Who can deny the truth of the old say- 
ing, that the minister lives on the ignorance, the physi- 
cian on the disease, and the lawyer and the statesman 
on the crime and quarrels of the people, and that they, 
in their present position to society, can have no interest 
in removing the evils they pretend to be instrumental 
in obviating ? Not that there is no wisdom or goodness 
in the members of the professions, but that their very 



EDUCATION. 261 

existence, in their professional capacity, depends upon 
the perpetuation of the evils for which they pretend to 
have a remedy. The ministry may preach of a judg- 
ment to come, the physician may bleed, blister, cup 
and drug, and the lawyer may frame, change, execute 
and repeal, his laws ; but which teaches obedience to 
God's natural law of love, freedom, adaptation and for- 
bearance, to forever remove the evils which are entailed 
on us from former dark ages ? The first goes far back 
into the heathen ages for its dogmas ; the second, like- 
wise, as well as the third, relies on the dogmatical 
authority of the past for its being, rather than the 
truthful reasoning of the present. 

Said a lawyer to me, " I have been educated to the 
law, and should have no means of gaining a livelihood 
if your ideal of society were realized." So the people 
must be kept in a state of ignorance and discord, that 
he may live in his discordant, half-educated state, by 
what he would have the people think was peace-makiDg. 
Said a minister to me (who was also an editor of a 
temperance paper), on the presentation of an article in 
defence of the original Washingtonian temperance prin- 
ciple, or moral power, rather than the law to suppress 
intemperance, "You run the plough too deep; you 
will root us all out." So my article was rejected, be- 
cause my striking at the root of intemperance interfered 
with other faults connected with intemperance. We 
must not teach all truth, because some half-educated 
or falsely-educated being cannot then earn his bread 
by preaching to the more ignorant. Long after the 
physician's experience has taught him that drugging is 
killing, and his humanity forbids that he should ad- 
minister the poison, bread pills and the like have taken 
the place of drugs, for the perpetuation of the employ- 
ment and the pay. And what is true of the antagonism 



262 EDUCATION. 

of the three professions to the public welfare is also 
true, to a greater or less extent, of most trades. And 
it cannot be otherwise until the whole man and the 
whole race are educated in harmony. The base of 
society not being on the oneness of the interests of the 
race must produce discord. I well remember when a 
boy I thought of getting rich in my pocket by the for- 
eign flour trade, and regarded the abundant grain- 
crops of Maine as a great misfortune, they cutting off 
my source of profit. All these evils come of a want 
of education, or a false one. Men do not desire to live 
in this antagonism and strife, and if they were educated 
to a true life they would shun the present as they do 
the fangs of a viper. 

A school may be made self-supporting long before 
its members arrive at their teens ; educating the whole 
being in harmony ; growing up to a perfect man ; 
causing no slavery, even to the parent, but making all 
a labor of love or attraction. We may gather some 
idea of what attractive industry would do, by some of 
our social amusements, which require much physical 
exertion, yet are sought with great zest, and indulged 
in, though at the expense of the earnings of unattractive 
or real slave labor. Who can doubt but all useful 
labor may be made attractive, when men can be induced 
to become soldiers and murderers at some eight or ten 
dollars per month ? 

The separation of the sexes* in our high schools or 
elsewhere is a prolific cause of mischief, for which no 

* Since writing this I have had the pleasure of reading two 
articles, from different eminent authors, on " The Unwise Sep- 
aration of the Sexes " in schools. Were I a teacher, I would 
not only permit, but request, that my pupils, male and female, 
should occupy the same seat, and, more than this, change as often 
as they wish. 



EDUCATION. 263 

remedy can be found but removing the cause. The 
opposite sexes act upon each other to refine, ennoble, 
elevate. They were made for each other; and the 
strongest love is there, to cut off which is to deprave 
or make more gross. The prevailing theology, if 
heeded, places us under a system of condemnation that 
is productive of the greatest mischief. Nature has 
implanted her laws, and bids us obey and enjoy. But 
the prevailing education and theology, which are im- 
pressed upon us from infancy, say, " No ! such is sin- 
ful." What better can we expect in the external 
world than antagonism and strife, when the internal is 
at war through false instruction, which causes us to 
strive to exterminate passions which are as deep-laid 
as life, and as holy as our existence ? Would we rise 
above this, our instruction must be harmonious with 
nature, overcoming the false theology of total deprav- 
ity, and make our loves, instincts, passions and reason, 
the index to our lives. As I have elsewhere said, our 
loves, guided by our reason, which are ever susceptible 
to elevation from proper instruction and circumstances, 
are the highest standard we can avail ourselves of, — 
to follow which will the most surely elevate us to the 
highest position it is possible for humanity to attain. 
If one love evil rather than good, and continue to do so 
after having been shown the good in the most favorable 
light possible, let him pursue it, even unto death. The 
world is better without than with such. Nature is 
just and merciful in all her dealings ; giving life to the 
good, because such are happy, and death to the evil, 
because such are unhappy. 

When we in our daily habits harmonize with nature 
our education will be more of an intuitive character, 
or that of inspiration or self-knowledge, and less de- 
pendent on books or some one's else authority. We 



264 EDUCATION. 

will know from our own internal resources. I would 
by no means abjure any method of obtaining knowl- 
edge, but scorn the idea that we can know nothing but 
that which has been told us, or that we should revere 
the fables of past ages, contrary to our present attain- 
ments in scientific truth. Animals have an intuitive 
knowledge often surpassing that of man, which we term 
instinct ; and formerly man had that which we termed 
inspiration — and man may now avail himself of the 
same means of information. It was not by any arbi- 
trary or special law that he possessed such powers of 
the mind, but by a harmonic law of nature, which ever 
was and ever will be in being. It seems to me that all 
knowledge was first intuitive, though external circum- 
stances are connected to call it forth. The mind is 
really the laboratory from whence come all the inven- 
tions which bless and curse the race. A Pulton's 
engine and a Morse's telegraph were first formed in 
the mind, — imperfectly, it may be, but there were the 
germs of principles which unite continents and bring 
the remote parts of the same into proximity. 

Those living in the transgression of nature's laws 
become unimpressible to nature's teachings, and are 
insensible to the plain matter of facts which are laid 
open plain to their senses, though an obedient pupil of 
nature receives the same knowledge intuitively. The 
bloated inebriate or the lank tobacco-consumer are 
poor subjects on whom to impress truths, through the 
external senses, which would be intuitive in either in a 
state of temperance. 

The government of our schools, like that of our 
nation, is on a base of evil, and must be changed ere 
we realize the high destiny of man. And to make 
this change we must go back to the theology and to 
the gods from which proceed this system of forced 



EDUCATION, 265 

government. From the frightening of children with the 
*' boogers " in the dark, and " bears in the woods," to the 
usual coerced obedience in school, the cat-o'-nine-tails 
and short provisions of our navy for the disobedient, 
and the cannon and mortar for our enemies, to the 
devils in hell for the finally-impenitent sinner, — all 
are a part and parcel of the same, and proceed from a 
false conception of God and his attributes. While we 
teach our children that God is coming by and by, long 
after we cease to do evil, and when there can be no 
possibility of reformation, to visit us with judgments 
and punishments, it can hardly be expected but they 
too will seek revenge on those who offend them ; thus 
perpetuating a retaliatory system, instead of falling 
back upon the non-resistant principle, and redeeming 
us from the evil rule of external physical force. 

Train up children with a consistent belief in a spir- 
itual existence, and they will become practical non- 
resistants. I regard it as impossible to become so 
without such training and an abiding faith in their 
oneness with God. If we have no realizing sense of 
eternal life abiding in us, we would be likely to resist 
an aggression on our life with life. But with such a 
faith we could meet with composure whatever beset our 
truthful path. However much we may claim for the 
government of our schools, as above that of force, it is 
nevertheless true that their base is the sword, which, 
though dormant, may be called into service at a mo- 
ment's warning. It is thus that the moral principle 
of government is sacrificed, while the arbitrary and 
coercive is fostered and nourished, entailing on the ris- 
ing generation a system which is the more cherished 
as they enter the avocations of life, which must finally 
overcome itself in destructive war if not removed by a 
true system of education. 
23 



266 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Even the fearing to offend makes the government 
of the destructive character. Love and fear are oppo- 
sites, the former of the redeeming, and the latter of 
the destructive, kind. The loving of God through 
fear even of his disapprobation, much more that of a 
hell, or any other punishment f is an absurdity. So 
the government of a school which, in the least, partakes 
of fear partakes of the destructive character, which a 
truthful education is destined to obviate. Perfect love 
casteth out all fear, and, as our governments partake 
of the government of God, which is that of love, 
it puts away, rather than engenders, fear. 

I have a philosophy, the soundness of which those 
who must may question, that we have nothing to fear 
from any external foe which does not find a correspond- 
ing internal one, or nothing to hope from an external 
friend who does not find a like within our own bosoms. 
It is a sad mistake for humanity, that God dwells 
only in foreign regions, where we can go only after 
death, or that he has appointed a place of torment in 
future for the finally disobedient. To my mind noth- 
ing can be more elevating than a just conception of 
Deity, who is everything for us to love, and nothing 
to fear. The inciting of fear is no part of a true edu- 
cation, but that which education is destined to ob- 
viate. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



There are many objections or discouragements 
offered to the principles I advocate, or their present 
or future practicability, any of which I would answer 
satisfactorily to any candid, intelligent being, had I 
the opportunity, or I would abandon my position on 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 267 

such point. I propose to answer a few of the most 
frequently iterated objections which now occur to me. 

I have no desire for contention, or even to teach a 
truth to those who do not wish it enough to treat it 
with candor and respect ; but, if I speak, all may hear, 
or, if I write, all may read ; therefore my thoughts 
must come before those who are so opposed that they 
may feel . even aggrieved that I speak to those who 
wish to hear. That for which one would jeer me, an- 
other would honor ; and that which I will receive from 
the latter, added to my own self-commendations, I 
trust will bear me up against the reproaches of the 
former. However, I do not anticipate even disre- 
spect from the intelligent, who are disposed to give 
what I have to say a careful, candid hearing. From 
those who are unwise enough to condemn without lis- 
tening, I must pocket what they offer, doing myself 
no harm by retaliation, if they offer insult. 

Says one to me, " You cannot reform the world, 1 " — 
offering such as a wholesale argument against any thor- 
ough reformation. I well know the odds are against me ; 
thousands to one if we take the outward phase of 
society, but not one to a thousand if we take tho un- 
spoken language of universal man. There is a chord 
which, when touched with truth, vibrates, and is felt 
by the millions ; and, though outward circumstances 
forbid them to acknowledge the influence, yet it is 
doing its work, though silently, yet surely and thor- 
oughly ; and all, however remotely situated, must 
sooner or later yield to the influence. If the external 
or spoken language of society was really the internal, 
and thousands there did exist to oppose, to one to favor, 
yet I would not be disheartened, but still hope that 
truth would eventually prevail. Truth is a mighty 
weapon to wield, and, though it destroys none, it saves 



268 OBJECTIONS ANSWEKEiy. 

its possessor, while error buries itself, leaving the bat* 
tie-field freed of its kind. 

Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven, which is to* 
break all other kingdoms, to a grain of mustard-seed, 
or a little leaven. A very insignificant thing of itself,, 
yet containing a principle of life which would grow a 
large plant, or infuse itself through a large mass. 
Though my position is construed to imply a claim to 
the ability to reform the world, yet I make no such 
pretensions, but claim to understand somewhat of the 
principles which are to do such a work, and pretend 
to know that such a work is to be done ; that evil is 
not to be perpetuated, even in this sphere*, but is 
finite ; and that the kingdom of heaven, the reign of 
peace, is to supersede the kingdoms of earth, and the 
reign of war, fulfilling in reality the prayer of Jesus^ 
« Thy will be done in earth as in heaven." It is not 
persons but principles, acting on each and the mass, 
which is to do the desired work of reformation. None 
can do without these principles, and none ean have 
these principles without doing or being. 

Man is an epitome of the universe below him ; there- 
fore a world within himself, and, when one reforms him- 
self, or is reformed, a world is reformed, and the ele 
ments are there to do or be something toward reforming 
the world. The " beam out of our own eye " first, and 
we shall see clearly to remove the " mote from our 
brother's eye." We have, then, a pattern — a likeness 
— by which to build a new world, or reform the old 
world. If our pattern has courts, prisons, swords and 
gibbets, we may be sure it is after the fashion of the 
old world of destruction, — not a correct pattern of 
the new kingdom of heaven. We may be assured that 
the beam is not out of our own eye, and our sight 
is not clear to remove the mote from our brother's. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 269 

It is no wonder that reformation is a forlorn hope 
with the majority of the people, since the majority 
claim the right to rule the whole ; and wherever they 
find evil, though they be its creator, they think to les- 
sen it by doing another evil, thereby most surely in- 
creasing the evil in both parties. Such as have no 
faith in the good may well cry, " You cannot reform 
the world ; " for their world, to them, unless they learn 
an abiding faith in the good, cannot be redeemed, re- 
formed, but must of necessity be destroyed. I only claim 
the right to reform myself, if reformation it be, or destroy 
myself, if destruction it be, infringing on the right of no 
one, but leaving all others free to pursue whichever course 
they choose; thus, if my course be evil, to save others 
the necessity of involving themselves to destroy me ; or, 
if good, to be an example for them to follow. 

An objection offered is, that my " principles are 
subversive of religion and civilization." I think I 
have elsewhere shown that they are not so, to the true 
principles of the Christian religion, or true civiliza- 
tion, but rather promotive of both ; still it may not be 
amiss to say more on the subject, if I can show more 
clearly that my position is a truthful one, though it 
be somewhat of a repetition. 

Religion and civilization are very properly coupled 
together. Though the church and state of our own 
time and country are claimed to be two distinct insti- 
tutions, they are each only a part of the same. The 
military, which no candid man will pretend to say is 
any part of Christianity, is based on the judiciary ; 
the judiciary on the political, and the political on the 
religious, sentiment of the age ; therefore the religion 
is a military religion, not a Christian religion, how- 
ever much it may claim of Christianity as its origin. 
Imagine the Christian religion as thoroughly diffused 
23* 



270 OBJECTIONS AtfSWEBED. 

throughout the land as the popular religion of the day 
is, and we will imagine, if we have a just idea of the' 
Christian religion, a land without military, or its judi- 
cial, political, or present religious power. Since the 
political, judicial and military are based on, or pro- 
ceed from, the religious sentiment^ we have only to 
correct the latter to remove the former. Now my 
principles, so far from being subversive to the Chris- 
tian religion, are to actualize and make it a thing of 
every-day life. 

A serious objection to association is that there will 
be idlers, living on the toil of the industrious, if not 
driven to labor by their necessities. But, instead of 
this hypothesis being an objection, it helps to an argu- 
ment in favor. It is to remedy an evil of this char- 
acter which now exists. I think it is estimated that 
much less than half the adult population are now pro- 
ducers to the extent of their consumption. And much 
less than half are producers of the necessaries of life, 
therefore live on the unrequited toil of others. Quite 
a proportion, though active and industrious, and would 
be serviceable members of a well organized society, 
are not only " cumberers of the ground/' but destruc- 
tive, in a high degree, to the welfare of society at 
large, that they may live without physical labor. In 
fact, the whole panorama of civilization aims to that 
end. The very base of the present organization is, 
that some may live and consume without producing, 
which of necessity must compel others to produce that 
which they do not consume, and not the strong to 
produce for the weak, but quite as often the reverse. 
In a true organization of society, founded on the wel- 
fare of the whole, the real paupers must stand out in 
" bold relief," and receive their bread of charity, be- 
cause they cannot produce, and not deceive the igno- 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 271 

rant with pernicious dogmas, drugs, laws or inventions, 
under the guise of elixir of salvation, life, order, and 
labor-saving. There will be no incentives to such 
cheats. The ignorant will no longer be slaves to the 
equally ignorant, though little more cunning. Nor 
will the real pauper disdain the brow that sweats be- 
neath the summer's sun, or chills before the northern 
blast, to support him in his pauperism. This system, 
which makes one back bend under the burthen of an- 
other, is of the present, not of the coming order. It 
is an evil we propose to remedy, not one the right has 
created, or will create. 

Labor is no evil, which we have to shun, but its 
want and excess. It is its inequality, isolation, re- 
pugnance and slavery, that we have to overcome. 
Redeem labor from these, and give it its just reward, 
and men will be happy, and proud to be found in the 
ranks, performing their part rather than shunning it. 
Labor can be redeemed and made attractive ; so much 
so, that men will take pleasure, rather than endure 
pain, in its performance. 

Give a score or two of men each a sword or mus- 
ket, a little yellow tape, a feather and knapsack, and 
a little music, and they will play soldier (murderer), 
and travel all day beneath a sultry sun, and amid 
clouds of dust, expending their hard-earned dollars, 
really performing labor as exhausting as bog-ditching, 
though not regarded in any sense as labor, but as a 
pleasant pastime. And why ? Because it is made 
attractive by numbers engaged in it, change of occu- 
pation, location, music, &c. 

" A levelling system, " says the man who depends 
upon his dollars, and the slavery he is enabled to ex- 
act for the position he occupies. But his is the lev- 
elling system, which forbids any to rise. The really 



272 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

good cannot, in his estimation ; for such cannot hoard 
their wealth, and the evil of course cannot. When 
money is divested of its power, men will all be raised* 
and they will occupy their true position or rank* 
according to their true moral and intellectual worth, 
and not, as now, ofttimes maintain a rank which they 
are unworthy of, or which is unworthy of them. And 
then all will be stimulated to a true high moral posi* 
tion, rather than low grovelling desire for moneyed 
wealth and power. Nor will envy and jealousy attach 
itself to the less favored ; for those more wise will 
have charity, and forgive imperfections, and ever strive 
to raise the fallen, thereby also raising themselves, in- 
stead of doing, as is now done, crush the fallen, that 
they may themselves rise above them. 

I have often heard it argued that to take from soci- 
ety its stimulus for money-making, and the desire for 
rank which money gives, the arts and sciences 
would be neglected, and we should become imbecile, 
or fall back into the savage state. Some have become 
so blinded and covetous in the pursuit of gold, that 
they really think there is no stronger incentive to 
action, no higher love, than their " almighty dollar." 
But, if they will watch the movements through the 
nineteenth century, they will find their dollars, as 
mighty as they are, in the shade. Love of the right 
is a much more powerful incentive to action than gold, 
and, though men risk and give their life for gold, they 
much more cheerfully and willingly give it for the 
right. Friendship will obtain sacrifices that gold can- 
not buy. What gold can buy such sacrifices as a mother 
will make for a darling child, or a sister for a brother, 
a daughter for a mother or father, or a son, brother 
or father, for either ? With these, there exist natural 
family ties and loves. So with the whole human fam- 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 273 

ily, or each race, is a similar tie, which may be 
strengthened to an equal tenacity of any family tie. 
Give me the regard and stimulus which love only gives, 
and let others, if they will, hoard their gold to pur- 
chase theirs. 

That the arts and sciences would be neglected in 
such a state of society as I anticipate, is not true, ex- 
cept those of a degrading and destructive character. 
The art of war, and the science of swindling, would no 
longer be reckoned with the useful arts and sciences. 
But all such as would bless the race would nourish as 
man now hardly dreams of. 

That men will fall back into a more barbarous or 
savage state without the money system, is a false 
hypothesis. They only need to have their eyes opened 
to find themselves now in a more than half-barbarous 
state when compared with true humanity. The sav- 
age might well blush at the barbarity of the so-called 
civilized, enlightened, or even Christian nations of 
earth. America's bloodhounds of the nineteenth might 
well be put to shame by the red man of the eighteenth 
century. Men will advance in arts and sciences, in 
spite of the money system, and retain their barbarism 
only to sustain it. The destructiveness and barbarism 
of nations are really continued to sustain the power in 
money and the sword. England and France, in their 
ignorance and savage brutality, wade through rivers of 
human blood, filling the moral horizon with blackness 
and despair, under the pretence of enlightening the 
world. Our own nation has but just retired from a 
war black with infamy to the impartial looker-on, 
which was prosecuted to extend her barbarous power 
of slavery. 

The insecurity against crime is an objection offered, 
by the doubters, against the abolishing of the present 



274 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

destructive governments. They seem to think that, 
if the restraint of evil-repaying laws was withdrawn, 
the world would be flooded with crime of every char- 
acter and hue. Even evil-repaying laws are not to be 
wrested from their makers and executors by evil, but 
by educating them to true laws — making them a law 
unto themselves — raising them above, thereby over- 
coming, the law of resistance or destruction, by non- 
resistance and salvation. For those who really feel, 
as I once heard a professed Christian say, that, if he 
believed there was no hell, he should be a perfect 
demon, plundering, robbing, and murdering, it may be 
well that there be a fear of hell, and hell-made laws, 
to restrain them. But I then had more faith in the 
man's humanity than he manifested by his speech, and 
have more in the world at large than to suppose that 
they will repay more evil for good than for evil. But 
if the restraint — if restraint it be— could be with- 
drawn suddenly, and crime should increase for the 
moment on its withdrawal, it would only affect the 
evil by destroying themselves, if those professing to be 
good, are really so, and take no part, or exercise no 
evil power over them. It is only as we have more 
faith in the evil than the good, that we resort to 
the evil, and that the evil has power over us which 
destroys. Bobbed and murdered is the first thought 
that comes to the fearful mind at the mention of the 
banishing of the legalized monster who does the whole- 
sale robbing and murdering. But such need not be 
apprehended. Men will no longer thieve or rob for 
bread, for bread will be so abundant, and justly distrib- 
uted, that there will be no necessity to fear its want. 
Money men will not pilfer, because money will have 
lost its power. And with the decline of the money 
power goes the incentive to all crime of the character 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 275 

of robbing and thieving ; also goes almost an endless 
amount of labor which is expended on bars, bolts, and 
locks, to protect the so-called precious, but in its pres- 
ent use really pernicious, metal. 

The short-sighted object to freedom in the love rela- 
tions, lest the world be overrun with vagrant and pau- 
per children. This, like all other of these evils, now 
is in being in the present state of society. They 
would not be feared if they did not already exist ; and 
if they already exist, they do not come of love in free- 
dom, but from the opposite, — love in bondage. It is 
true the population would be increased in one direc- 
tion, though decreased in another. Those wishing to 
bear children would not suffer the denial ; and those 
wishing not to, or wishing to bear less, would be suf- 
fered to have their wishes respected. Thus, on the 
whole, there would be less births, but of a more pure 
character, therefore more healthy and intelligent. Give 
women their true pecuniary rights, and they can sup- 
port the children they wish to bear as well as the fath- 
ers support them ; and give them freedom, and they 
would not be forced to bear contrary to their wishes. 
One class would be relieved of the excess, and another 
be blessed with that which they really desired. That 
woman would forsake her offspring under such circum- 
stances is too absurd to require an argument to refute, 
and the man who sincerely offers such a plea for 
woman's bondage may well be watched with suspicion 
by all true women. It would be placing mankind 
below dogs, cats, rats, and mice. One offered the li- 
bidinous propensities of man as an objection to freedom 
of love, and, to raise another objection, said if the 
sexes were permitted free intercourse, it would over- 
come the love or desire that existed for the opposite 
sex. These two arguments chime with each other 



276 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

about as well as most arguments which are raised 
against the principles I advocate, — error vs. error, 
- — and the one hangs the other. The libidinous is the 
creature, of which bondage, isolation, and exclusive- 
ness is the creator. Both now exist in the present 
order, and are to be overcome by love and freedom. 
No proper desire which exists for the opposite sex will 
be eradicated, or any improper one nourished, but the 
natural will take the place of the zmnatural. 

Says one to me, " The most of your ideas are very 
good, and I prize them much ; but your free-love doc- 
trines would spoil all the rest." 

It is thus that many honest, well-meaning people 
think, who have not given the subject a thorough and 
careful examination ; and so have people thought of 
most or all other reforms on their first presentation to 
the public mind. But, on a more thorough investiga- 
tion, the careful observer will understand that freedom 
and love are the base and chief cornerstones of the 
temple of righteousness, which the people, in their 
blindness, are seeking in " a city out of sight." With 
their eyes blinded by the traditions and superstitions 
of the past dark ages, they are groping about in the 
dark, seeking a Saviour, whom they are denying within 
themselves almost momentarily. What is freedom but 
to be freed from external laws, — exempt even from 
the restraint of fear ? And what is love to us but to 
live true to our own internal desires, without the re- 
straint of any external bond ? Freedom which would 
place us under any other rule than that of love, and 
love which cannot let us be free to live true to our 
own internal desires, are neither absolute love nor free- 
dom. Freedom and. love are compatible with each 
other, and either is inconsistent of itself. Freedom 
cannot exist without love, nor love without freedom. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 277 

Hence the abortive efforts of nations for freedom, also 
of the church for a rule of love. The two principles 
united, and we have a redeemed world at once, and 
the kingdom of heaven, sought after for a future sphere, 
a reality of the present life. I cannot be too zealous 
in advocating this, though the most repugnant of all 
my doctrines. People only reject it because they look 
at it from a false position, and through a false educa- 
tion. 

When there is no longer a law of evil, from whence 
can come a marriage bond, or how could such a bond 
be enforced ? " Thy will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven " is the prayer, desire, or life-aim, of every 
Christian man or woman, which, when fulfilled, must 
disannul every external law or evil force, leaving only 
that of love to bind. Said Jesus (Matt. xxii. 30), 
" For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in 
heaven." Thi^ resurrection referred to was of this life, 
and not of the dead, as most imagine. The following 
verses make this plain. Says he, " But as touching 
the resurrection of the dead," plainly referring to an- 
other resurrection besides the one of which he was 
previously speaking. 

In extenuation of the external marriage bond, as 
well as in extenuation of the gallows, prison, and war, 
the corruption of mankind is argued. But all these 
are a part of the same one system which destroys, 
never saves. Such is the blindness of corruption, and 
such will the blind and corrupt have to destroy. But 
only the blind can be the instigators, abettors, and en- 
forcers, of such laws. The pure and enlightened will 
not ask them, will not sanction them, will not submit 
to them, though their present temporal lives be the for- 
feiture of the disobedience. 
24 



278 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

One tells me that " women will not consent to free- 
dom." But the man, if he is sincere in giving such an 
objection, does not know woman as well as I do. It is 
the same story that is told of the slaves of the Caro 
linas, — " They do not want to be freed ; " yet all 
the while more stringent laws for their security as 
slaves are being enacted. That ignorant women, or 
slaves, to some extent do wish to retain their present 
condition, I will not deny ; but that a well-educated 
woman, or slave, or man, would wish to retain the 
present relation of man and wife, or master and slave, 
is not true. However, I pray that all who do may be 
permitted to do so. They shall have my best wishes 
for their prosperity and happiness. 

But because the few or many do not understand 
that there is here in this sphere a higher, a holier, 
and more beautiful state for humanity, shall, therefore, 
all be bound to their developments ? Is there not in 
America a spirit of freedom and tolerance, which will 
allow a portion to separate from the mass, and live a 
law unto themselves, as their own individual con- 
sciences shall dictate their own ideal of truth ? If 
there be not such a spirit, then hush the cry of free- 
dom, stay the tide of progression, and let us quietly 
march back to despotism and religious intolerance ; 
let us bow our necks under the yoke, to throw off 
which our fathers spilled their blood like water. There 
is no stand-still point, or quiet for the race, short of 
annihilation on the backward track, or individual, re- 
ligious, political, and social freedom, and universal 
redemption, on the forward. The one or the other is 
our destiny. 

Whatever might be the present consequence of indi- 
vidual social freedom, it is the only foundation on which 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 279 

to build an order of society that shall be universally 
acceptable and beneficial, and permanently peaceful. 

A semi-progressive and semi-conservative, but withal 
a very candid, man, tells me he sees plainly the ulti- 
mate of my views, and that they are very beautiful, 
— every way worthy of an enlightened people ; but, to 
arrive there, I would be involved in a greater calamity 
than now exists. By throwing off the restraint of 
evil laws, which I would do, he thinks the good would 
be overcome by the evil, leaving the world desolate 
indeed. He thinks the good should make other pro- 
vision than their goodness to protect them while the 
evil are being educated, or reformed, I think I have 
elsewhere shown to the candid reasoner that the law 
of evil for evil increases the evil ; therefore, if we 
could strike it out of existence instantaneously, we 
have less to fear than in continuing it ; but I do not 
propose any such thing, nor can such be done. I ask 
those professing to be good to leave the law of evil 
with the evil for their destruction, while they, as good, 
honor the law of good for their own salvation and ele- 
vation. Those alone who are evil and blind will wish 
to do otherwise. Our state governments are very 
gradually learning something of the philosophy here 
presented. They have ceased to hang for murder, 
when they can do better with the offender. Once they 
thought they must hang publicly, for the moral in- 
fluence on society; but, latterly, they have learned 
that the influence was very immoral indeed ; and, if 
they do it at all, they do it privately. The public,* in 
their ignorance, so much needed the demoralization of 
the public example of eye for eye, life for life, that 
the poor sinned against and sinning was denied the 
boon of dying quietly and alone by his own hand. 
But thanks to the law of progression that they have 



280 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 

learned thus much of their folly. They have yet to 
learn that to do an unkindness, though in their collect- 
ive capacity, is to do the same to themselves. As said 
Jesus, the measure they mete is measured to them 
again. A murder, though a lawful one, is still a mur- 
der, the perpetration and the consequence of which is 
equally divided among themselves. 

As it seems to me that I have answered satisfacto- 
rily these few objections which occur to me, I could 
answer every objection which could be mentioned 
against my ideal society ; but that I can in a moment 
make every one understand or appreciate them as I 
do, I will not say ; for, as said Jesus, their eyes are 
blinded that they cannot see. But if they will follow 
true to the light within them, rather than after the 
traditions of others, they will speedily be able to un- 
derstand these truths, which will redeem and restore 
the world to happiness. 

Argument can be met with argument, mutually 
benefiting each other, if the desire be for truth ; but 
it is not by argument that error seeks to sustain itself, 
but by suppressing such, and imposing on the progress- 
ive the authority of the past, and the laws, dungeons, 
and ecclesiastical curses of the present and future ; 
though the conservatives are glad to reason as long as 
reasoning answers their purpose, and then, to accom- 
plish the balance, they suppress it altogether. I re- 
member, when a boy, of arguing with a conservative 
until he had exhausted, to sustain his false position, 
every argument his ingenuity could invent, who then 
plead the treachery of human reason in extenuation of 
his point. 

Drowning men catch at straws, which they take 
along with them, though affording no relief; so do 
conservative men grasp at nothing, and expose their 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, 281 

own ignorance, without avail. As objections to pro- 
gression I have quite frequently been offered such as 
these : " Who made you wiser than all the rest of the 
world ? " " Why have not these things been found 
out before ? " " If you are right, everybody else is 
wrong." u You set yourself up above the experience 
of the past." Innumerable such objections are offered, 
which have hardly the weight of the breath that utters 
them ; yet they are objections to the objectors, which 
they will have rather than the weightiest arguments to 
the conclusions of a progressive character. 

It is not I, but they, who pretend to so much wis- 
dom, even surpassing that of God. I claim the 
simplest, purest laws of love, which are written in 
every creature that lives, as the star to guide us; 
would even go to the little children and animals, and 
there learn wisdom ; would not spurn the self-evident 
truths of God or Nature, and pretend to the far- 
fetched and dear-bought; and I ask none to accept 
even one thought that escapes my lips that does not 
commend itself to their own good understanding. 

Of the right and the wrong of the world : Are not 
the wars, in which pretending Christian nations are 
engaged, wrong ? Are not all monarchical governments 
wrong ? Is not slavery wrong ? Are not intemperance, 
pestilence, ignorance, poverty, and servitude in its 
various forms, wrong ? Who can put a finger on 
the first institution, even in the American States, and 
truthfully say, "It is right ; from beginning to end, it 
is right " ? Then why chide with unkindness because 
I take a position contrary to them all ? Is wrong too 
sacred for my pen? or did the right ever suffer by a 
kind and careful exposition of her being ? Has the 
right anything to fear even from the wanderings of my 
pen from the truth ? Nothing. The right has abso- 
24* 



282 OBJECTIONS ANSWE&ED. 

lutely nothing to fear from any source, much less from 
the pen of an isolated individual. It is the wrong 
that fears such, though upheld by time-honored au- 
thority, and the countless forces of the present ; though 
it has more to fear from its own internal corruption 
than from any external foe. 

In conclusion, here I challenge the world to meet 
me, in kindly, candid discussion, on the subjects involved 
in this book. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 
LETTER TO LILY. 

Augusta Jail, Sept., 1854. 
Dear Lily: Forgiveness seems almost an impos- 
sibility to — ■ -, and its want is a canker-worm that 

eats greedily at the life. How I pity ! but it is of no 
account to do so, for the evil passion must destroy 
itself, unless it can be overcome with good. Bear this 
in mind, Lily, and for a moment do not harbor the 
least bitterness towards any one, but rather adopt the 
true philosophy, " they can't help it," and of course 
there cannot be hardness retained towards them. In 
fact, no one can do you a wrong if you are right. All 
evils to do us harm must find a somewhat correspond- 
ing evil in us, else they only react on the evil-doer, 
leaving us unscathed. Do you understand me ? If 
not now, you will by and by. It is a principle of great 
importance, and we shall be able to teach it practi- 
cally one of these days. It amounts to just this : we 
are to be really good, and that goodness will save us 
in all circumstances. May I explain further ? If one 
endeavors to do you harm, and you are so elevated 
that you feel no evil or retaliatory spirit, the harm 
intended cannot reach you. This will be true to 
any greater or less extent. It is an universal law 
that evil can only affect a like evil, while good saves 



284 CORRESPONDED OK 

itself, and begets a like good. Evil must always he 
left to itself to destroy itself, while good only must be 
used to do good. 

Say you that a falsehood may be put in circulation, 
detrimental to your reputation, and though you feel 
no retaliatory action or spirit, yet you will be harmed 
by the calumny ? Not so ; for when you have so far 
progressed that you feel no retaliatory spirit towards 
those who would injure you, you do not value public 
opinion so highly as to feel the sting of its reproba- 
tion, having the approbation of your own conscience. 
And do you say, in answer, that you are deprived of 
their sympathy and society? I answer, not so; if 
their sympathy and society are worthy of you, you will 
still retain it ; and, if unworthy, you suffer no loss. 
Ere you become too good for this sphere of sympathy, 
you are joined to a higher one; you are absolved 
from this body of death and dissolution, and become, 
so to speak, a member with Christ of the incorrupti- 
ble. 

This may not appear so clear to you as it does to 
me, but its brightness and beauty will come to you by 
and by. Search diligently for it in the principles I 
have taught you, or in so many of them as seem to 
you good and true. 

All life is in love, and love is not where there is any 
hatred or jealousy; therefore these are death. A 
longer and a happier life is before you than you have 
anticipated, but it only comes in love — universal love. 
We are not to take an unlovely thing to our bosoms in 
its unlovely state, but change it, shine into it, fill it 
with light, life and loveliness, that it may come unto 
us in our own purity and goodness. If the object be 
so unlovely, black or dark, that it cannot " compre- 
hend " the light, then of course we can make no favor- 



CORRESPONDENCE. 285 

able impression, and should leave it to its own blind 
destructive element, being sure that we retain none 
of its like principle in us for our destruction. Here 
lies the great error in the world, holding in reserve 
evil to kill out what evil we cannot overcome with 
good. We forget that we are not good when we wish 
to meddle with evil at all, and that the destructive 
element is in all sufficiency in all evil to overcome 
itself by destroying itself when it cannot be reached 
with good. 

It is certainly very unpleasant for a humane man 
to punish ever so humanely one who has erred or 
transgressed, and it cannot be done without making the 
one who inflicts the punishment a transgressor of the 
laws of his own life. 

There is no way possible that we can meddle with 
evil, except to overcome it with good, without par- 
taking of it. Every evil that we overcome with 
good strengthens the good in us ; so also every evil 
that we meet with evil weakens the good. 
Truly, my dear, as ever, 

Yours for progression, 

James. 

The phenomena which I mentioned, and which you 
refer to, I cannot well explain to you now, but it bade 
me be quiet in my prison home, and taught me I was 
not to rely despairingly on others for my freedom, but 
that its elements were within myself, and when the 
right time came, though it was not in the hearts of 
the people to let me go, and their bars and bolts inter- 
posed, yet I could be freed. 



2 86 CORRESPONDENCE. 



ANOTHER LETTER TO LILY. 

Augusta Jail, 1854. 

Dear Lily : It is Saturday evening, and I am still 
in my prison home, as contented as ever, though I am 
making an effort to get out by pardon. The folks at 
Gardiner are circulating a petition for signatures, ask- 
ing my freedom of the Governor and Council. They 
do not succeed much ; they are rather faint-hearted, 
and I do not wonder they are so, for the petition began 
with a falsehood, by making a plea of insanity the 
ground for asking favor. How important that what we 
ask for is right, and that we ask truthfully ! One 
noble soul, with a truthful position, would do more than 
a legion of such. However, all will be right if I do 
no wrong myself. 

One man wished to extract a promise from me for 
my future conduct to be squared by the crooks of the 
public mind, in consideration of assistance that would 
be rendered me by another, if I complied in promising. 
I answered him, I would lay myself under no obligation 
to falsify my life for a reprieve from the prison or 
gallows ; — the rope around my neck and the trap 
ready to fall would not make me retract one truth that 
I had uttered in speech or act. He then tendered, 
in my behalf, a complete falsehood — to lie for me to 
the other, telling him that I had acquiesced. I re- 
plied, my cause did not want his lie; itself was a truth, 
and it had no need of a falsehood to help it, and I 
would not accept it, or thank him to give the sem- 
blance of an untruth in my behalf; still he persisted 
in promising even to force on me his services. 

What fools, to suppose I want or need their lies to 
assist me to speak the truth ! Another said to me, 



CORRESPONDENCE. 287 

if I would let those " whorish women " alone, I could 
get a pardon well enough. I was disgusted with their 
own prostitution and blindness, and thought to myself 
I would rather live here always in solitude than to 
live in their greatest freedom, splendor and prostitu- 
tion. I am happier by far than the average — so I 
guess ; but this is no consolation to me that my happi- 
ness will compare favorably with their misery or 
happiness. 

I have written a petition to the Governor and Coun- 
cil, and have another with a few names that were ten- 
dered me, among which are the jailer, high sheriff, a 
juryman or two, and two or three members of the bar, 
which I shall send to the executive when they assem- 
ble ; and if they let me go, well ; and if not, just as 
well ; for I am making it a tolerable home, I assure 
you. My sweet little girl comes about as often as ever, 
and I am some days thronged with company. 

Clara gave me three little paper figures for the 
three children here in the house ; two little girls and 
one boy. And when I gave them the presents, they 
jumped at me with delight ; first one and then the 
other kissed me with all the fond affection they could 
a father. I assure you there is life, even in a prison, 
with all the perversions entailed and imposed on hu- 
manity. What must there be when we all feel the 
pure influence of unalloyed love, which these little 
children do or would do without the falses that sur- 
round them ! My little angel seems to enjoy my com- 
pany as much as I do hers. When she comes to my 
room, she always comes directly to my lap and arms, 
and suffers herself to be fondled and kissed, often re- 
turning, though I am so hideous as to often frighten 
the mothers. There is an instinct, a spiritual influence, 
such as you and myself enjoy in each other's company, 



288 CORRESPONDENCE. 

that makes our society, even in silence, sweet to each 
other. 

When I speak of your sitting beside me, how I 
long for you to do so, and enjoy that sweet com- 
munion in silence, or talk of the time when all will 
enjoy the blessings of social harmony ! I am thinking 
of your going away soon with your dearest loved one, 
and it is not pleasant to me to think of thus always 
being separated. It seems a great transgression of 
affinities or true laws, if there is a similar attachment 
with you for me that I have for you. It seems a 
great shame there is no home for humanity, in freedom, 
in New England, the boasted land of the free. What 
a grave for humanity is this isolated, selfish, sensual 
love, — love of dollars greater than the love of the 
soul ! This feeling of mine with which is grasped 
everything, even human beings, and holding nothing 
but losing everything, even our own lives. 

We must seek to enlarge our circle of love, but bind 
nothing, hold nothing, claim nothing, yet enjoy all. 
We must not cut ourselves off from any love, for all 
life is there. Receive all that comes to you in love, 
and go to all that is good and lovely, but not waste 
your life on those who do not want it. Let them 
hunger and thirst, and then they will come to you and 
be filled ; but never cast your pearls where they are 
trampled on. Do I tire you with my importuning for 
you to enlarge your circle of love ? Forgive me, and 
honestly tell me, and I will cease to annoy you. 

To-night I was to go into a cell to lodge with a 
prisoner, a good fellow, who wished my company. He 
is the same whom they let come into my room a day 
or two when he was sick ; but this evening three pris- 
oners are added to our number, and he is changed into 
another cell, where there is no chance for me ; so the 



CORRESPONDENCE, 289 

poor fellow is to be disappointed, but to-morrow, 
Sunday, I hope they will allow him to occupy my room 
with me. We prisoners now number twenty-five. 
Several, however, are sentenced to the state-prison, 
and await their transit thither. Four are here, con- 
victed of selling liquor and ale, three for drunkenness, 
• — six have been here for the latter since I came myself, 
— and one other for lewdness, and the remainder for 
different crimes, such as rape, adultery, theft, robbery 
assault, &c. Six of us are " outsiders, " sort of 
honorary members, who stay here quietly without locks 
or bolts, to gratify the county and her officers, while 
the hard-workers pay our board and attandance here, 
and pay these lords who administer the laws, fat sala- 
ries, and perhaps support some of our families at home ; 
and what is all this for ? The supremacy of the law, 
the protection of the people, the reformation of the 
vile, the support of a herd of non-producers, or to 
avenge some in either or all of these classes. A 
commingling, I opine, which will be unriddled one of 
these days to the satisfaction of all, and be looked 
back upon with astonishment. 

I think I told you, before, I had a comfortable room, 
kind keepers, &c, that made my lot very tolerable 
indeed ; but there are some offsets, I assure you, 
though I think I shall get through with them all, and 
come out bright at last, with a little scouring. Still 
there is some danger of my being blackened with 
tobacco-smoke, which issues forth in huge volumes 
from the mouths of those who would feign bear the 
name of Christians, while they would unfit their 
bodies for a dog's " ghost to dwell in," yet would 
quote to me, " keep the body a fit temple for the Holy 
Ghost to dwell in." 

It is not so pleasant for me, you are aware, to room 
25 



290 CORRESPONDENCE. 

and lodge with those who pollute themselves with 
meats, tobacco, and whiskey, and do not cleanse their 
bodies from one year's end to another ; but such hap- 
pens to be my lot just now, for the Maine law Chris- 
tian folks, though in the nineteenth century of the 
gospel, have not yet learned to keep Moses' law in 
regard to swine-eating, nor John's in regard to daily 
baptism, much less Jesus' laws of love and forgiveness ; 
but never mind, they will come to it by and by, or, 
what will be the same thing to the world, their own 
destruction. 

I believe the keepers are not required by law to 
feed the prisoners on anything but bread and water ; 
but they get good enough, with their knowledge of the 
goods. They have hashed meat or fish and potatoes 
every morning ; beef soup or beans at noon, and 
bread at night, with tea at two meals ; occasionally 
a change, such as rice, mush, or peas. I get such 
living as I have been accustomed to — coarse bread and 
fruit principally. I have filled my sheet, and must bid 
you good-night. James. 

THIRD LETTER TO LILY. 

Augusta Jail. 
Dear Lily: I take my pen to perform the 
pleasing work of communicating with you, — - the last 
opportunity I shall have by your present name, or 
under your present auspices of freedom. You tell me, 
the day after to-morrow you are to be married, " le- 
gally married," to a man you love. What an idea to 
me is this " legally married," legally loved, legally 
living, legally thinking, speaking, and acting! It 
sounds to me like legal slavery, legal suicide, legal 
murder, legal death. The whole system of legality 
is based on death. It knows naught but death, while 



CORRESPONDENCE. 291 

all life is of God, which to the legal authorities is 
illegal. 

O, Lily, that I eould bid you God-speed in your 
new relations ! I wish, sincerely wish, that all you an- 
ticipate, and more than your heart can ask, were yours. 
But I cannot hope that you will enjoy this great 
blessing, which your good heart desires and seeks, in 
the transgression of any of the attributes of the Deity. 
I pray with all my heart to the Father of our spirits 
that your eyes may be opened to all truth ; that you 
may be one with him in his life, which is eternal ; 
his love, which is universal ; his wisdom, which is 
above all folly; his harmony, which is as the move- 
ment of the heavenly bodies; his liberty or freedom, 
which is as that of thought ; his attraction, which is 
as that which holds the satellites of the sun in their 
respective orbits; his forgiveness, which knows no 
judgment ; and his charity, which knows no condem- 
nation. This is my earnest, my sincerest, my deepest 
heart-felt desire, except that this great blessing of 
your being one with God may extend to all other 
creatures. And it must extend to all, for God is 
finally to be " all in all." 

The love your good heart asks for is as righteously 
yours as the heart that beats within your body ; but 
that you should ask it exclusively, is to ask that 
no other heart but yours should beat. To ask it to 
be bound to you, is to ask it to become your slave. 
To give yourself in bondage, is to become the slave 
of another. Neither of which does God -permit with the 
highest good, because it is a transgression of his law 
of freedom. In freedom alone can we enjoy the 
sweetest blessings ever tasted by mortal beings, which 
will lead, even while tarrying here, from the mortal 
to immortality. 



292 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Should others love him whom you love, and he 
them, how cruel that you should interpose with legal 
claim to exclusiveness ! You can do so only as the 
highest and holiest love ceases, and that which is un- 
enlightened and low takes its place. You enjoy 
happiness now in your love in freedom. You 
anticipate much more; and more than your present 
conceptions are capable of even wishing for f may be 
yours ; but you must not think to enjoy it, only as 
you enjoy that which you now do, in freedom, lest even?, 
your present anticipations should not be realized. You 
can hardly conjecture how few of all who wed realize 
their fond hopes. The poet says, "Mistaken souls^ 
to dream of heaven." Heaven does not live in bond- 
age, or in the soul that binds^ nor is heaven exclu- 
sive. 

Should it ever cross your mind that your loved one 
desires the company of another, do not seek to check 
that desire, but rather anticipate it, and send him 
away with a merry, loving smile, and go about your 
business ; not with a sad, jealous, lonely heart, as 
though your all had gone, but with a light heart, feel- 
ing that he has gone only to bring greater riches;, 
and be assured that as your faith is, so will it be unto 
you. One who loves with such ennobling love has 
more power to keep the good than all the legal bonds 
the world ever dreamed of. 

Now, my dear girl, whatever has been or may be 
your course, I would not condemn you. I can do no 
such thing. You have done the best you could under 
the circumstances. It is at great cost, in these days, 
as well as in former times, that one lives a truth, a 
whole truth ; though a great gain if able to meet the 
loss without bankruptcy It is a great loss to be for- 
saken by the many, but a great gain, on the whole* if 



CORRESPONDENCE. 293 

the many be false, and forsake us for the truth we 
embrace. 

1 say I would not condemn you. But I would 
teach you, if possible, the principles of reliance on 
eternal truths, that you may know of eternal life abid- 
ing in you. These are eternal truths, though they be 
spoken by him whom you address as your "Dear James.'' 
And 0, how gladly, how joyfully, how quickly, would 
I speak them to your heart, were it in my power ! 
Could I have her whom I call my Lily, and her loved 
one, one with me, and we all one with God, how happy 
would I be this night as I lay me down on my prison 
cot to sleep ! Lily, it is much to say, " one with 
God ; " but may I not say what I feel ? And can you 
not have charity, rather than contempt, for assuming 
so much, and forgiveness too, and love also? Your 
good heart does not forbid me these ; you know me too 
well. And to these may you not add the other virtues, 
and extend them all to me ? And that which you be- 
stow on me may you not be able to take to yourself, 
and what you take to yourself may you not bestow on 
all others who can receive ? There are no blessings 
too good for any who can receive them. There is no 
darkness but we may shine into, though that darkness 
comprehends us not. The good we would do, does not 
exhaust us, unless we would do it with evil, in which 
case it will at best prove an evil to us. 

You " hope " I have been freed from my prison ; and 
do you not understand you are about to join the same 
power which keeps me here, — that power of darkness, 
legality ? I know my Lily would not, even for her 
own liberty, betray me here. But here I am, and she 
is about to join the persecutors, though she does not 
understand she is doing so, unless I can make her 
25* 



294 CORRESPONDENCE. 

understand it by this letter. If I can, how glad 1 
shall be, that she may flee it ere it be too late ! 

The sin of this power of darkness, legality, which 
she is about to join hands with, is great, and, once 
under its influence, it is not easily forsaken. To be in 
bondage to a nation's sins is a fearful state. 

I still occupy my prison home, though in freedom. 
" Whom God has made free is free indeed ', " and I 
can hardly be one with God without enjoying his attri- 
bute of freedom. The spirit which is free does not 
feel the tyrant's fetters. As I told you, when I wrote 
you before, there must be a somewhat corresponding 
evil in us for an evil to harm us. Others may con- 
demn, judge, punish, imprison, hang or crucify ; still 
the life which is one with God is the same. It is that 
which cannot be destroyed or taken, unless given 
freely. The present material life is but a trifle to give 
for a truth, when we have the abundance of God's, 
and feel the principle of eternal life abiding in us. 
Others may feel that they punish, but all things work 
together for good to such, and they know it, and feel 
it, and are above any real harm. 

I said this was probably the last time I should write 
you under your present auspices of freedom. Yes, 
Lily, when I write you again, if ever (which I" hope 
to), you are to be another's; and as another's I must 
address you, and with his consent and wish. If he 
approve with you of such sentiments as I write, then it 
will please me to give them. If not, I will not in the 
least intrude ; therefore, after this, I shall await an 
answer from you both to this letter ere I write an- 
other. You are to swear fidelity to him, to love him 
alone, and do not let me intrude between you. But, 
Lily, learn him to love all that is good, and enjoy that 
love with him, that he may allow you, also, to love all 



CORRESPONDENCE* 295 

the good. After you have made the bonds you are 
about to, if possible let them be felt only as an idle 
form, while you live in obedience to true laws, and cul- 
tivate the true spirit of love, which will make you two 
as one, and break the bonds of death that you are 
legally about to impose on yourself and loved one. 
For truth, as ever, 

James. 



LETTER TO BROTHER 0. 

Augusta Jail, Sept. 8, 1854. 
Dear Brother 0. : I have received yours of a late 
date, and thank you. As you understand from my 
last letter, I am quite well reconciled to my " prison 
home," if prison it must be called. It is pretty hard 
to make prisoners of the free ; so I think they find it 
here. I would be permitted to go at large at any 
time, but for the complaint of a very few of the evil- 
minded. Now I have to run away, take my walks 
early in the morning (the best time), before the good 
people are up, or in the evening, under the cover of the 
dark. You know it is no easy matter for me to do 
things in the dark, especially that which I deem good, 
for I like to be trumpeted too well ; so I walk in the 
morning. My situation here is very tolerable indeed. 
I have a large room, aired by two windows, facing 
south and west, and overlooking very beautiful scenery 
in nature's garden ; and, but for the contrast, or the 
opposite side of the picture, the eye might feast itself 
with exquisite delight. You are aware that this is 
the capital of Maine, and at a glance see many things 
to make the heart ache ; but do you see all as I see it 
here ? Doubtful. Within the range of my vision is 
the State-House, where the celebrated u Maine Liquor 



296 CORRESPONDENCE. 

Law " was enacted ; it is said with the most astonish- 
ing good results ; yet, in this jail, since I have been 
here (less than two weeks), two have been entered for 
drunkenness, and two were here when I came, making 
four at one time. None of these rumsellers, but all 
victims of the ruinous traffic. The prisoners in their 
cells, I am told, are not exempt from the pernicious 
influence, and so I should think from the disturbances 
they often have there. # These circumstances, and the 
reeling gait and butcher-like faces of the occasional 
passers-by, do not speak volumes in favor of the " cel- 
ebrated law," but as much to me as does any other 
human law whose base is to destroy to save. The law 
itself cannot be enforced against this degrading prac- 
tice without first degrading men to enforce it. The 
soldiery must be nursed with rum and gunpowder to 
make them the best fighting soldiers. Say not that 
we have a civil power to enforce laws, for they are 
only a stand between the people and the military 
power, the latter of which is the " backer " of the 
former, and the civil become military when they choose 
or think they need. Where are those who would think 
to enforce the " Maine Law," or many other laws, if 
they did not feel they could reach behind them and 
take the sword and slay to open a forward path? 
This is a mighty power, especially when backed by 
public opinion, and more so when backed by the 
church, and more so still when they think they have 
authority from on high. Yes, it is a mighty power, 
but only mighty to destroy ; and here, as in all other 
evil, it is limited to itself — its own destruction. Its 
mission is to destroy itself by destroying all connected 

* Liquors are passed in at the windows, from the outside, by 
means of long poles. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 297 

with it, or all that retain that connection. Do they 
think it salvation ? Fatal error, but only fatal to the 
evil ! One Christ shall do more to save than a legion 
such saviors or destroyers. When he comes, it will not 
be with a drawn sword, or a sheathed one, unless it be 
to show those who meet him with a sword that he may 
have no occasion to defend himself with it. Does he 
come with a " mighty power," it is only to save. The 
destroyer and the destroyed are the same ; so of the 
savior and the saved, they are alike one. 

But I did not take my pen to give you a disserta- 
tion on philosophy, but rather to tell you what is to 
be seen within the scope of my physical vision. I have 
told you of the capital where the wisdom of destruction 
concentrates to devise means and make laws to carry 
out its plans of destroying. Things must be done 
" according to law." 'T is " unconstitutional " to kill, 
except by platoons; unless we have platoons to do 
the work of killing. A rascal may not kill a rascal 
single-handed. The work is too sacred for such hands ; 
so, to help the matter, all help kill. 'T is right, just 
right ; 't is scientific. Why should not destruction be 
brought to a science, as well as preservation ? There 
are but two laws to govern all matter ; one, the law 
of God, or love, attraction, salvation, — and the other, 
the opposite law, which men handle with remarkable 
alacrity. But, thanks to the Author of all good, one 
law is finite and the other is infinite. One ends itself 
by its own blindness and imperfections, while the other 
reigns supreme time without end. 

Here, within a stone's throw of my prison window, 
is the court-house — "temple of justice," as the 
county attorney was pleased to call it in his plea before 
the judge for my conviction. Eastward, less than half 
a mile distant, is the state's arsenal, with its score or 



298 CORRESPONDENCE. 

more thousand standard of arms, ready to do their 
work of destruction if occasion calls; and within a 
musket-shot of that is the insane hospital, telling too 
plainly of the progress of the destroyer, even without 
the aid of musketry. Do the folks ever think that 
this hospital has a foundation in the war system, even 
without ever drawing a sword ! The necessity of mili- 
tary power is an indication of insanity, is a mark of 
disease and death by violence. 

The state-house, court-house, jail, arsenal, hospital 
and alms-house, are all but parts of the same system 
of spoliation, a remedy for all of which is in Chris- 
tianity — obedience to the laws of God. Love, which 
is all life, is a remedy for all this death. There is no 
other remedy ; and a patching up this old system of 
wrong with wrong is but hastening the final fatal 
time, or increasing the ill fates of those who meddle. 
The fatal time is now, as it is seen by this hospital, 
alms-house, deformity and death; but a more fatal 
time may come to many. 

As ever, yours, 

James A. Clay. 

LETTER FROM BROTHER 0, 

Modern Times, Sept. 16, 1854. 
Dear Friend : Your last letter, on the subject of 
government and military power, was about the most 
original and pointed of anything I have seen on the 
subject ; but still I am not satisfied about the matter, 
It is a subject I have been somewhat in doubt about, 
for some time. I am well satisfied that no govern- 
ment of force is going to reform the world, or make 
any one what they should be, any more than pulling a 
tooth is going to remove the cause of the pain, or 



CORRESPONDENCE. 299 

restore the system to that healthy state it would have 
been in, had the laws of life never been violated, to 
make the tooth decay and ache. Still, it may be veiy 
necessary to remove the troublesome member from soci- 
ety, as you would the worthless and troublesome tooth. 
A restraint or government may be necessary, to place 
the individual in a position to be reached by a better 
influence. 

Let me ask you a question : If you were a slave, 
under a master who was only interested in getting what 
money he could out of your labor, would you not use 
all the means in your power to throw off the yoke ? 
Yours, C. 0. 



LETTER TO BROTHER 0. 

Augusta Jail, Oct, 10, 1854. 
Dear Brother 0. : I have received yours of the 
16th ult. ; have delayed answering it for a long time 
— for what reason I hardly know, and presume you 
don't care. You see I am permanently located yet. 
It seems the good people have it in their hearts to 
keep me a little longer. I hope they will not keep me 
any longer than it will be best for them to do, for their 
good. I am quite sure they cannot longer than it will 
be for mine ; and, if their interests are identified with 
mine, I shall be sure to go at their best time also. I 
am feeling- that my time to stop here has nearly 
expired, and I shall get out as soon as I can, without 
striving or crying, I have learned very much in my 
stay here, and feel that I could soon be doing more 
" at large," but will be content — much so, at least — 
while I stay, if treated as well as I now am. After I 
wrote you before, we had new comers, and I was 
infested with rum and tobacco, and I moved my 



300 CORRESPONDENCE. 

" traps " up another flight of stairs, and am again by 
myself, free from those pests of so-called civilization. 
My " traps, " — perhaps you would like to know what 
they consist of. I will tell you. A bedstead, that I 
own a share of, is made of hemlock joist and pine 
boards in the rough (the lumber belonged to the 
county — so I presume the county attorney will claim a 
share of this) ; a little pine stand, of my own make 
also; a nice mahogany table the jailer loaned me; 
one chair ; a drip pan, for bathing (I live in John's 
gospel of baptism with water yet) ; a pail, pitcher, 
quart dipper, bowl, knife, spoon, and lamp ; a trunk 
and valise, that contain my wearing apparel; a bor- 
rowed corn-hopper; a prisoner's blanket, which I 
picked up in the jail-yard, that I use for a carpet ; a 
pair of dumb bells, home manufacture, for exercise ; a 
thirty-seven-and-a-half-cent mirror, to see my pretty 
face and beard in ; three brushes, each for the clothes, 
hair and teeth ; — that 's all, I believe, except a jump- 
rope and the bedding ; and I have been trying to think 
what more I wanted, but I can't. And Queen Vic. 
can't boast of being better supplied for her wants than 
I — sol" guess," as all Yankees do. I still occupy a 
very pleasant room, having a look-out south and west, 
overlooking the most beautiful scenery (I think) the 
world affords. The trees and shrubbery have put on 
their autumnal dress, shaded with the great variety of 
hue they usually dress in ere they lay it all off for the 
season. The hills rising on either side east and west, 
the plain on which my snug little home stands, and the 
valley along whose course the beautiful Kennebec rolls, 
are all clothed in their prettiest. I am almost inclined 
to think there was some other design, above the su- 
premacy of the Maine laws, in giving me such quarters 
at this the most delightful of all the seasons. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 301 

There are buildings, edifices whose external appear- 
ances are rather pretty, but the rottenness within 
makes them detestable for any others than to whom 
they belong. The court-house, state-house, arsenal, 
hospital for the insane (quite too small), and not less 
than a score of churches within the range of the eye ; 
either it would seem to the casual observer, was a 
mountain to remove with their pernicious influence, 
but all is made light when we know the seeds of de- 
struction are in each, — that the evil in each will kill 
itself, if let alone ; and all we have to do is to be of 
ourselves, and thereby save ourselves, and let them 
seem, if they choose ; — beings will stand ; seemings, 
of course, will be known to the beings as such, while 
the seemings deceive themselves by their seemings, and 
rid the world of themselves by their own blindness and 
pretended goodness. I have sometimes thought to 
mourn that reformers could not have some of this more 
than wasted wealth, as I thought it, to help them on 
in their work of redemption; and then, again, I am 
half inclined to think it would only be a curse to them. 
The longer I live the more I am inclined to honor the 
saying of Jesus, "Seek first the kingdom of heaven." 
It does seem that we want a piece of " God's foot- 
stool," and material to build us habitations ; but I am 
inclined to think that will be redeemed to us as soon 
as we are redeemed from that which we must be, to 
enjoy the kingdom of heaven. When we redeem man, 
his possessions will come with him ; and until he is 
redeemed we don't want much of his possessions. 
Acres, herds, houses and ships, would only be an incu- 
bus, without men who know their legitimate use. Acres 
to raise swine, houses for brothels, ships for war, and 
men for soldiers or slaves, we do not want ; they all 
belong to the old system, and are wanted there to do 
26 



302 CORRESPONDENCE. 

their own work of destruction. If we can save a 
man, woman or child that has what we want, it is 
well ; but we don't want many things the world holds 
dear. 

In a reform journal, recently, I got the following : 
" If the valley of the Amazon is ever redeemed from a 
state of nature, it will be by the labor of slaves ; " and 
it might have been added, it will want redeeming 
again. Man redeemed, and all is man's. There will 
then be no need of slavery. It is strange that men 
cannot think of labor being done without slavery. 

I told you I was going out of this as soon as I 
could get out ; and I shall, if not otherwise redeemed, 
pay the fine imposed on me, if I can obtain the filthy 
lucre without incurring a liability that will perplex 
me, and, at the coming session of the Legislature, peti- 
tion that it refund me the amount ; and if they are the 
honorable body they wish me to understand they are, 
they will hand it over ; and if they won't do it, it will 
be just as well, I presume. The constitution reserves 
to the people the right to petition, and I am an incor- 
rigible beggar, yet shall ask only my rights, which are 
not so limited as they imagine. I petitioned the Hon. 
Judge Rice, who sentenced me here, for the privilege 
to return to the court-room from which I was sent, but 
it was no go. Mr. Pettingell, my jailer, returned 
word that I must go into close quarters ; but still I 
was allowed my usual freedom. I understood it pretty 
well, — they wanted to "scare" me to silence; but I 
think they did not want to impose any more close con- 
finement on me than the public mind demanded. I 
think both of them have pretty good hearts ; and I 
thought it was too bad to " torment them before their 
time ; " so I kept still. 

The poor fellows are all of them in a queer fix, be- 



CORRESPONDENCE. 303 

tween the "hawk and buzzard," church and state. 
They cannot feed their hungry souls on one or the 
other, and both together does not help the matter one 
jot ; they are both carrion food, to make the best of 
them, on which none but the unclean bird can feed and 
be satisfied. 

There, now, I have written you a long letter without 
referring to your last ; and I don't know but you think 
I am going to "dodge" your question. Perhaps you 
have solved it in your own mind ere this. I hope so ; 
for it is better to pick up our own crumbs than to be 
looking for others to do it for us. I don't know how 
better to answer it, than to ask you what I am doing 
now. The law that the good people wish to impose 
on me in regard to marriage is a counterpart of the 
southern slave law. It is, in fact, the head and corner- 
stone of the temple of injustice, darkness, disease, 
death, and all the countless ills that afflict us ; while 
free love, or love in freedom, is the head of the corner- 
stone of the temple of God, — the same that the build- 
ers have rejected. It is an uncouth thing to them, but 
when they shall have commenced at the foundation, and 
dug themselves out of the mire which they are in, and 
used the material within their knowledge for its legiti- 
mate purpose, and rear the "temple" as far as that 
will carry it, they will find this first " stone," which 
they have rejected, an admirable fit to render the struc- 
ture complete, perfect and beautiful, beyond their con- 
ception. 

The rotten system, which society is, may keep pull- 
ing the aching " teeth," if they will do so. If they do 
not look to the cause of the decay, and stop that, they 
may pull, pull, pull, until they have not a tooth left, 
and only a rotten old frame to fall in decay. 

We that would save ourselves must " come out and 



304 CORRESPONDENCE. 

be separate," and leave them to do their own work of 
destruction, while we do ours of salvation; the law 
for the lawless to be left in the hands of the lawless, 
while we keep ourselves above and free from it ; this 
work of death to be performed by the dying, while we 
engage only in that of life. Said Jesus, " Let the 
dead bury their dead, — follow thou me." 

The lawless want and will have the law (as they 
think) to protect themselves ; but their present law is 
only to destroy themselves. If we have not faith in 
God to protect us, then we must or will seek the next 
best power within our sphere. The means which we 
seek for protection will indicate the sphere we occupy. 
Those in the lowest destroy to save, and only accom- 
plish their own destruction. Said Jesus, " He that 
takes the sword shall perish by the sword ; " those in 
the highest will allow themselves to be what the lowest 
calls destroyed to be saved. They, like Jesus, if need 
be, will take up their cross and march quietly to the 
scene of crucifixion, yield up their lives for the truth, 
and yet be saved, as was he. Said he, He that will 
lose his life for my sake, shall find it. Such have 
eternal life abiding in them, and they know it. They 
feel that they are one with God ; they are so, and with 
them there is no destruction, for them any more than 
for God himself. Between these two spheres there is 
every grade of sphere. We may have a material sys- 
tem of defence or protection that is not destructive, or 
would not seem so; but, after all, I think it would be 
destructive to our faith in God, to think he was not 
the most almighty power to save. 

Yours, &c, James. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 305 

ANOTHER LETTER TO BROTHER 0. 

Augusta Jail, October 18, 1854. 
Dear Brother : I have just received jours of the 
15th, — welcome, as are all jour letters. You see I am 
located here jet, and I don't know but I shall have to 
be until the end of mj term, which will expire on the 
28th of February. When I first came here I was 
determined to staj the six months, rather than be 
redeemed with gold. I was then verj happil j situated 
alone ; since then, I have been annojed with bad eat- 
ers, drinkers, and smokers, which induced me to seek 
the trash which onlj would buj of a Christian people 
(so called) mj libertj ; and that had to be sought of 
the same people. I sought, and sought in vain ; for it 
was their god, and thej could not part with it. Since 
then I have obtained another room, where I am again 
alone and verj comfortable. I think, on the whole, I 
shall be none the loser, though I am wanting congenial 
associates. There is not a male with whom I have the 
privilege to associate that is not made up phjsicallj 
of dead animals, fermented bread, unhealthj and deca j- 
ing vegetables, tea, coffee, rum and tobacco, and spir- 
ituallj what might be expected to be the result of such 
a commingling of foul material, together with heathen 
mjthologj, Jewish rites and ceremonies, and the mis- 
construction of the doctrines of Jesus, leading them to 
suppose that he died for their sins, and that thej are 
to be saved and restored to a future state of bliss 
through a pretended faith and belief on him, and the 
performance of a few idle rites and ceremonies. All 
these circumstances combined make it an up-hill busi- 
ness to teach men truth, therebj giving them life, that 
I maj in return be a recipient of the same blessing. 
What is true of men is also more than true of women. 
26* 



306 CO&KESPONDENCE. 

They are under many of these perversions, and their 
slavery to husbands, fathers and brothers, and their 
fear of the opposite sex, especially those they are led 
to believe desire intercourse with them only for their 
ruin. 

By becoming as a little child, and playing with 
childish toys, I got the love and fellowship of little 
children, far more pure than their elders, though the 
offspring of the same perversions. So I manage, by 
reading a little and writing a considerable, to get along 
and while away the hours that might otherwise not pass 
so pleasantly. I do not expect it will always be thus ; 
for I hope by and by to get completely above these 
little annoyances that sometimes now trouble me. A 
philosophy I have that there must be a somewhat cor- 
responding evil in us for an evil to harm us, or for our 
becoming annoyed by an evil. And may I tell you I 
hope to become so pure and good that no evil shall 
find a corresponding one in me, and then, if I am not 
deceived in my calculations, I cannot be touched with 
evil. I do not doubt that this seems visionary to you, 
that one can be so good that no evil can harm him; 
but if such is not the case, what profiteth the becom- 
ing good, and what security for the good ? What else 
saved Jesus, and what the many others ? If we are 
and continue good, and the law of salvation is not in 
the good, what security have we that evil may not 
burst upon us in its fury, and overwhelm and destroy 
us at last? Herein is a great error, consequently 
evil, which the world labors under — that the salvation 
of the good is not innate in the good — a spiritual life 
which is really a shield, a power or god within us who 
holds and saves us as securely, and by as immutable 
laws, as the heavenly bodies are held in their respective 
places ; but, rather, that the salvation of the good is 



CORRESPONDENCE. 807 

an interposition of divine providence, contrary to uni- 
versal established laws, and that God sends judgments 
on this one, avenges the death of another, and protects 
a third, as it strikes his fancy at the time, when others 
equally evil are passed without judgments, or equally 
good are not avenged or protected. 

When mankind shall learn that the law of protection 
or salvation of the good is innate in the good, and the 
destruction of the evil in the evil, and that the judg- 
ment is now, and the consequences of judgments follow 
to death, and reward of the good is now also, and the 
consequences follow to eternity, or lead to life ever- 
lasting, without any escape of the one or doubt of the 
other, many a one who now pursues his evil will flee 
from it. They will not think to pursue a life-time 
evil and then repent and be saved, nor will they " roll 
sin as a sweet morsel under their tongue." It is then 
that if they feel a depression of spirit or a physical 
pain they will know they have been transgressing, and 
the judgment is on them ; and they will straightway be 
looking about to see wherein they have sinned, and in 
future, if possible, shun it. When they learn that 
judgments come not from God, but from their own 
depravity or transgressions, and that they need not 
look to God for eternal life, but can only have it by 
being obedient to God's laws, and that God himself 
cannot prevent the judgments of the wicked, sinful or 
evil, being visited on themselves, and that the soul that 
sinneth shall surely die, or is dead, — I say, when men 
learn this, there will be an incentive for them to be 
good and do good. Such knowledge may truly be 
called the wisdom of God, which will lead men to for- 
sake their sins. 

It is very plain to me that God is a universal spirit 
diffused throughout all creation, and that when we 



308 CORRESPONDENCE. 

become so harmonious in ourselves as all must be to 
have God or eternal life abiding in them, that evil 
cannot touch us to harm, any more than the earth can 
touch the sun ; though all the time we, like the sun's 
attraction of the earth, will be attracting the evil 
toward us, who will be kept at bay by the repulsive 
force of evil innate in themselves. And we, like the 
sun, will ever be warming and bringing to life the dark 
and benighted. 

Enough now. As ever, yours, 

James. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 
LETTER TO FRANK. 

Augusta Jail, Sept. 20, 1854. 

Dear Frank : I have just received yours of the 
15th. You will perceive, by my location, that I am 
not in circumstances to attend to your business. I 
came here three weeks since, under a sentence of six 
months. I am to-day preparing a petition to the gov- 
ernor and council for a pardon. Some of my friends 
at Gardiner have another petition for my release un- 
der the plea of insanity. I think those who know me 
well, if they are not themselves insane, must make a 
very faint-hearted work of it. However, I have no 
objection that the insane should make a plea of insan- 
ity to the insane, to obtain my release. Come to take 
the second thought, I don't know but they are just 
right, to do this wrong, since there is nothing but 
wrong throughout their courts. 

Is not this a strange world, filled with more strange 
people, teaching a still more strange philosophy? 
How truly is the saying verified, " The world is all a 
humbug ! " But do the ignoramuses for a moment sup- 
pose that this is any other than God's world, and that 
he makes worlds, and keeps them for "humbugs"? 
If they do, they " humbug " themselves, and, by and by, 
such bugs will have to stop humming, and bugs that 



810 CORRESPONDENCE CONTINUED. 

are not humbugs will have a chance to hum without 
being troubled with humbugs. Most assuredly will 
these humbugs humbug themselves to death. They 
have only to be let alone, and, like the Kilkenny cats, 
they will eat each other up, " tails and all." To them, 
this is no trifling matter, that I should thus speak 
lightly of it ; but, as I said of the petition, insanity for 
insanity, so I say of them, foolishness for foolishness. 
Perhaps I ought not thus lightly to speak to you, or 
rather speak more deeply and soundly ; but I hap- 
pened to run across a streak of such thoughts this 
morning, and had nowhere else to put them but on 
paper for you. I don't know but I shall have to adopt 
Paul's philosophy of becoming all things to all men, 
that some may be won ; but I think more of them will 
get a jog downward, — a stumbling-block to the block- 
heads, but salvation to those who are worth being 
saved. 

You have some idea of the meanderings of the law, 
but to know all the crooked, detestable workings of 
the system, you must go through court into jail. I 
thought I knew enough, but the half was never told 
me. 

A female before the court, the other day, on her 
trial for lasciviousness, told them she did not wish to 
be convicted by those whose guilt was equal to hers. 
She said she could not see one man whom she knew, 
but was guilty with her, and said, if the guilty were 
all taken out of court, there would not be enough left 
to try her. An officer present related to me the cir- 
cumstances, and said it was a very common-sense re- 
mark. She was found guilty, however, and awaits 
here to receive her sentence. We have another female 
here convicted of larceny, " according to law ; " but I 
am told, by a juryman, that he did not believe she 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 311 

had any intention to commit the deed ; yet such was 
the law, that she must be convicted ! What an im- 
portant thing this " law " must be, which must be hon- 
ored and respected, though it convict an innocent 
female ! They are really thinking that men must be 
servants to the law, as corrupt as it may be, rather 
than the law should be a servant to men. 

I wish I could give you a minute sketch of all the 
cases on trial this term. It would be a volume in de- 
testation of the present organized society. The cases 
are of every grade, from rape to the most petty offence. 
I understand Judge Rice says it is the most corrupt 
criminal court he has had since he has been on the 
bench, six years. This does not speak much in favor 
of the final happy termination of the present organiza- 
tion. 

They have had one novel case here this term. A 
while ago, two prisoners broke jail, one of them leav- 
ing a letter, stating that he would return to take his 
trial, in due season. Of course, no one credited a 
" jail bird " that would break from his confinement ; 
but, while the court was in session, he returned, and 
delivered himself to his jailer. It was with much 
adroitness that he escaped the prize-catchers ; for 
there was a bounty of one hundred dollars on his 
heels. His manly conduct shamed the court, and 
they entered a " nol. pros.," as they term it, and he 
was discharged, but only to be retaken by one of the 
hungry wolves that, I understand, quarrelled about 
the division of the reward, in the short time they had 
him in custody ; but they soon learned, from the court, 
that he had been discharged, and was no prize. They 
have half a dozen or more subjects for the state prison 
from this jail, whose aggregate term must be some 
twenty years. There are six here in jail who serve 



812 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

from twenty days to six months. Since I have been 
here five have been entombed for drunkenness ; not- 
withstanding this is the forum of the state that enacted 
the famous liquor law that is so much applauded for 
its victories over the enemy Alcohol. And these five 
cases are by no means all the victims of intemperance 
that have come under my notice since I have been 
here ; for I have a good look-out to the thoroughfares, 
though not to the main ones in the city either. There are 
three boys brought here this afternoon, aged ten, twelve 
and thirteen years. One has been crying to see his 
mother. They are to be sent to the Reform School. This 
is getting a little nearer the root of the evil ; but they 
have to go back eleven, thirteen and fourteen years more, 
and begin with the beginning, ere they accomplish all the 
reform that is necessary. However, much, very much, 
may be done, to begin with those boys as they are ; 
but they must put away the whole system of punish- 
ment and forced obedience, and rely solely on the 
moral influence to reclaim ; else they lose that which 
they would save with themselves. It will be pretty 
bard business to learn those, in the destructive sys- 
tem, to save. Men who disorganize themselves by 
false eating, drinking, &c, will hardly teach boys true 
laws. They have a beginning in falsehood, separat- 
ing the sexes, which is pernicious, almost in the ex- 
treme. When men dock off* a shade of their wisdom, 
and become just as wise as God, and no more so, and 
let the sexes come together naturally, as there is affin- 
ity, and, with the rest, teach them the necessity of 
keeping the sexual organs as pure, for natural pur- 
poses, as the animals do, then may we look for the 
speedy coming of the good time so heartily prayed for. 
Then there will be no need for reform schools to send 
unruly boys to keep them out of mischief; but each 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 313 

community will be of itself a kingdom of heaven, 
where God, or love, reigns supreme, without whips. 
When we tell them, among other things to be done or 
not to be done, that they are not to destroy animals 
for food, or other purposes, they will turn up their 
noses straighter than ever ; but they may scorn the 
idea as much as they please — each scorn will help to 
bring their noses to the dust. Animal killing and 
eating is a part of the destructive system that destroys 
itself, and those who partake of it partake of their 
own destruction ; they are not saviors, but destroyers, 
whose numbers are hundreds of millions. And then, 
like as goes the rum traffic when men become tem- 
perance men, so will go all other traffic when men 
become Christian men. Pretty hard saying, that so 
many steeples rear themselves throughout America in 
honor of Christianity, and yet all of them dishonor 
Christian practice ; but it is true, and a sad truth to 
humanity, which groans under the falses almost as 
numerous as the people. Cannot men see, or do they 
wish to deceive themselves and others, that they may 
— to use their own language — be damned ? It seems 
so ; for they persecute those who teach them salva- 
tion. They seem content to die in their sins, looking 
for a resurrection in Christ while they persecute 
Christ, or they who would teach God's laws, which are 
the same. But they are to learn, or die without learn- 
ing, it matters but little which to the world. God is 
to be " all in all," and they must be in God, and God 
in them, else give their room to some thing or body 
else. It will be a poor plea, with their mouths full 
of tobacco, their brain fired with alcohol, and their 
stomachs gorged with meats and pernicious drinks, and 
their hearts filled with anger and revengeful laws, 
that Mother Eve sinned, and brought all the mischief 
27 



314 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

on them, and that Jesus died to wash it all away with 
his blood. They must think the kingdom of heaven 
is to be made up of very foul material, if it takes them 
in their pollution ; but the time will come, and the 
story will be told, and is told, in such language that 
all, who have ears and comprehension, may hear and 
understand. 

Write me again when you please, believing me, as 
ever, yours in love of all truth. James. 

LETTER EROM FRANK. 

Philadelphia, Oct. 7, 1854. 

James Arrington Clay, — - My dear Friend : How 
does your jail life wear ? Does confinement within 
the abode of the few who cannot sin with impunity, 
emaciate thy face ? Dost thou rave, and tear, and 
swear like a madman, and howl until thy now protrud- 
ing eyes burst from their protruding sockets? Ah, 
no ! Methinks I enter the outwardly gloomy jail to 
find a heaven within, where dwells, in happy resigna- 
tion, a man ; one who dared to be a man ; who dared 
to assert his sovereignty ; who embraced the truth for 
the sake of his race ; and, with the spirit and image 
of God in his breast, defied the threatening fangs of 
the hydra-headed monsters which sway the multitudes 
of earth. Arrington, God is with you. The angels 
of heaven sit at thy feet, to guide thee in the narrow 
path thou hast chosen. 

I wrote you quite a long letter, immediately on the 
receipt of yours, and, from some cause, lost it. This 
will do quite as well. As you need no sympathy, of 
course I cannot give it you. You know, if you are not 
wanting in courage, resolution, or energy, the sympa- 
thies of those who love you truly will be immediately 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 315 

drawn out towards you. The hearts of men who live 
in purity and truth are like great lakes of clear and 
sparkling water, connected with each other by ducts 
of untold capacity, that, when drafts are made upon 
one, the others contribute their respective shares. 

I hope your friends may succeed in getting you out 
of purgatory ; for I can see no good in your staying 
there, if things can be otherwise ordered. I would 
not court imprisonment, neither would I turn aside to 
avoid it, but get out, if you can do so without much 
effort. If you would be obliged to rack your brain 
for a scheme, and then your body to put it into effect, 
better stay where you are. But 0, how I would like 
to be with you, and share your — I cannot say mis- 
ery — I will say imprisonment ! 

I have left the employ of , and am now in 

the heart of this great heartless people, without money 
or friends. I cuess I will go to jail too. B. F. S* 



LETTER TO FRANK. 

Augusta Jail, Nov. 5th, 1854. 
Dear Frank : I was thinking to-day that it was 
time to write you though I had nothing very good to 
say. I received your letter some time since, and am very- 
thankful indeed that I have one that understands, and 
appreciates me, though I fear you estimate me much 
too highly. It is true, Frank, that I possess truths and 
principles, that I fear but few understand, that I 
would fain get before the people in such a light that 
they might receive them and rejoice. However, I must 
not mourn, strive, or complain, if they are so blinded 
that they cannot receive the light I have ; but shine on 
and on, that those who can may receive, while those 
who cannot, go their own foolish way to destruction. 



816 COBKESPONDENCE, CONTINUED 

But while they go there is something for you and 1 
to do, and something to enjoy, though in prison and in 
rags. While others seem to enjoy so much in appear- 
ing, we at least have some consolation in being, though 
we may appear very common-place to those who know 
but little of us. We have at least the satisfaction of 
knowing that beings are realities, while seemings are- 
as shadows that pass as the flickering of a lamp. 

You are right when you imagine you enter tho 
jail and find me in happy resignation ; for I am really 
so, though, for a limited period since I have been here y 
I was a little " out of sorts," being obliged to room 
and bed with smokers and drinkers ; but now I have a 
room by myself again, and, though it is rather cool, 
all is now right. My room is very pleasantly situated^ 
and I am now as I said very happy. The more so 
just now that I imagine that a channel is to be opened 
through which I can speak to the people. Since I 
have been here I have tried in vain to gain access to 
the columns of the most liberal papers in the country ? 
except one or two that I felt were doing quite as 
much or more then I could do to disseminate the 
truth. I have found way into two or three of our 
papers here for certain articles ; but I had fetters on 
my pen, that would not let it speak what would other- 
wise flow from the heart. I have now succeeded in 
making an engagement for the printing of a paper, or 
the continuation of the Eastern Light ; and, if I am 
not foiled in raising the means to pay, I shall get on 
finely — amuse myself by shining on the people with 
my little " Light." It will be rather a dark corner, way 
down-east in the State of Maine, in jail too, for light 
to come from ; but it is no matter how dark the corner ; 
if the light is there, it will shine, and by and by dispel 
many a cloud that hangs over the brow of humanity* 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 317 

You, Frank, I trust, have not been driven to Philadel- 
phia for nothing. I hope a great good will yet come out 
of it to you, as well as out of my imprisonment to me. 
It was for a truth that you dared to speak and endeav- 
ored to live, that you were sent away from here ; and no 
harm shall come to you at last for any truth you may 
utter in speech or life. All the harm that can come to any 
of us will be for not living for the right. Both of us 
retained our places quite long enough, and left in just 
the right time, and have now only to pursue the right, 
and no harm shall come to us. If harm appears, and 
we have nothing of the kind to repay, we have a 
shield with which we might defy all earth's combined 
forces. This is a principle that the world have yet to 
learn, that the shield of the good is in being good, 
instead of taking evil to protect with. God protects 
his own with his own, while the evil destroys its own 
with its own, vainly striving to save. 

The whole world of governments are to right about 
face and return " a kiss for a blow," and then, as if by 
magic, the world will be saved from its death and deso- 
lation. You will appreciate this more than most others, 
and the more as you practise it. " Non-resistance " 
is all resistance Death received for such a truth is 
life. Said Jesus, " He that will lose his life for my 
sake shall find it." There is no such thing as death for 
us when we have none to give to save us. 

When we rely on these principles we rely on God ; 
are one with Him, in whom there is no death. This is 
a dark saying to those so blinded by their sins that 
they feel no protection to save them from evil except 
by evil, but it is bright and beautiful to those who 
know and feel the protection they have. 

Well might we fear a failure if we had to pin our 
faith on those who deny a philosophy so simple as that 

27* 



818' COKKESPONDENCfi, COftHmTEtf. 

two and two make four ; but we have to do no Bitch 
thing. The light or truth we have is such to us ; 
no matter if every one else in the world deny it with 
ridicule, scorn, or contempt. But it is not so ; the good 
everywhere are with us, though they inhabit the 
remotest corners of the earth, and just in the ratio 
that they and we are good, just so are we united. 

What might have been the invention of the steam- 
engine, now if Eulton had minded the jeers of the 
thick skulls of his day ? What that of any other 
science namable, if its projectors had not stood out in 
their individual might of truth, and proclaimed it to 
the world notwithstanding their incredulousness ? All 
in their day have had the crushing weight of igno- 
rance and superstition, and many a truth has found for 
itself way to men's brains amid the severest persecution, 
and often with the forfeiture of life. If other men could 
give their lives for what they have done, can we not 
risk our reputation for so great a truth as we feel and 
know, knowing that our life is safe and eternal ? One 
age stigmatizes what the next applauds ; and what we 
know to be a truth let us speak fearlessly but kindly, 
and trust in the future to give us our just reward. 
The reward for these truths, that are nearest our hearts, 
has not altogether to be waited for in the future, 
either, for we now feel the genial influence as it warms 
our hearts and invigorates our lives. 

I say " kindly ; " yes, kindly ; else it will prove not a 
truth at last. It is of great importance that we heed this. 
When we anger men we unfit them to receive that 
which we have to give. There is a deeper philosophy 
in this than I have time to explain now. 
• My paper is to be enlarged, and I am having a new 
heading engraved representing me in prison, with a 
little girl beside me, the jailer's daughter. She is a 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 319 

Sweet little girl of seven years, who visits me daily, 
and often several times a day. A week ago Saturday 
I had four little ones, from seven to fourteen years, who 
spent the afternoon with me, all as happy and blithe as 
•little angels. I have considerable company but little 
of which is more agreeable to me than these little 
children. They love me, and do not fear to express it, 
by an embrace or kiss. When a little older I presume 
they will be taught that it is, or leads to, licentiousness 
to love more than one, and that according to law. But 
I hope they will yet be taught that the reverse is the 
case ; that the more we love, the less licentious. To- 
day I had a visit from my old and tried friend . 

When parting with me he inquired after my wants, to 
know if they were supplied, and, as ever, offering to di- 
vide with me. He has stood by me when many have 
forsaken, and is a very worthy man. 

As ever yours for truth. James. 

LETTER TO M. 

Augusta Jail, Sunday, Oct. 8, 1853. 
Dear M. : This week ended, and it will give me 
forty days in this wilderness of sin, and I am hoping 
an end to it ; though, I trust, I shall not mourn or feel 
very much discomforted, if the end be not with the 
forty days. When I first came here, you know I had 
made up my mind to stay here the six months, unless 
I was redeemed without buying myself, as slaves are 
bought, with gold. I then had a room to myself, and 
everything about me was tolerably conducive to my 
happiness. There was then but one " outsider " be- 
side me, as we prisoners are called, who stay here 
for the " fun of it," to the county, without troubling our 
keepers to put us under lock and key, grates and bolts ; 
and, though he was a drinker, and smoked, he was 



320 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

kind and respectful to me. But soon our number in* 
creased to six, that were honorary enough to have an 
outside berth ; but there was not room for so many ; 
so some had to go into cells, and I was obliged to take 
a drinker, smoker and chewer, to my room and bed ; 
and there was talk of putting another bed in the room 
with mine, and then I talked of going into close con- 
finement ; so this last arrangement was given up ; but 
I had the rum and tobacco man for a bed-fellow ; and 
this was not the worst of it; for the room adjoining, 
being only separated by a single board partition, as 
you know, that was so quiet when occupied by one, 
became " as noisy as bedlam," as the saying is, when 
occupied -by three, and all smokers and drinkers, and 
there was but little peace or sleep for me day or 
night. They managed to smuggle in liquor, and, while 
one was under its influence, I suffered extreme abuse. 
That I might sleep, at two o'clock at night, I left my 
bed, and took a comforter and pillow, and ascended a 
flight of stairs, and went to the extreme end of the 
prison, to occupy the floor of an empty cell ; but all 
to no purpose ; for I was followed, and ordered to my 
own room, and the comforter pulled to throw me off 
of it ; when I arose, and went to the, keeper's room 
door, and awoke him, and all was soon restored to 
quiet, and I was allowed to lie down quietly, though 
sleep was put away from my eyes. From that mo- 
ment, I made up my mind to get out of jail if I could, 
and wrote to my brother to that effect ; but my wishes 
were disregarded, though, after I came in, he told me 
to let him know when I wished to come out, and I 
could do so. I endured the quarters and bed-fellow I 
had for about a week, and then obtained permission to 
clear out a room to occupy directly overhead ; and, 
since I have been in it, so far as my own room is con- 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 321 

cerned, it has been quiet, and free from tobacco. Since 
I have been up here, I have had encouragement that 
I should be released ; but none comes ; which leaves 
me more unpleasant in the suspense than though I had 
had no hopes of it. I wish people who believe in the 
efficacy of jails to reform could know what I know of 
them ; they would endure, beg and plead with offenders 
to reclaim them ere they would take steps to entomb a 
brother man in such a place. And how many would 
take a victim through all the scenes from the fireside 
until they return to the fireside again ! But very few, 
I trust, had one to fill all the offices through which 
one passes. The criminal would find mercy, were he 
being dealt with by anything that had souls. 'T is 
said that corporations have no souls; so man, if he 
offend them, must run the gauntlet, and, if he save his 
own soul, he is fortunate. If a man offend, and, per- 
haps, if he does not offend, one makes a complaint, an- 
other makes a writ, another serves it, a fourth, a judge, 
sentences to the county jail to await a trial bj a jury 
(an American hobby), when the prisoner passes into 
the fifth, the jailer's hands, and prison, to lay months, 
or years, in many cases, as I have known, ere they get 
a final verdict from a sleepy jury, before whom an 
attorney pleads some defect in the writ, commitment, 
or law ; while, on the other hand, an attorney pleads 
that justice to the laws may be done, which must be 
honored, the public protected, the man convicted and 
imprisoned, to be reformed. The jury, as the case 
may be, judging by themselves, after all, pronounce 
him guilty or not guilty. If the latter, he is set at 
liberty, without any remuneration whatever for his loss 
of time, health, morals and money, for counsel and 
witnesses ; and, if pronounced guilty, he is handed over 
to the judge, who hunts his books for a precedent, and 



322 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

sentences the man, who is passed to an " officer ; " who 
passes him to the keeper of the prison; who passes 
him to the ceil again ; and not one in all, through 
whose hands the criminal has passed, that takes to 
himself any more responsibility for the result than the 
granite blocks of which the prison is built. 

They are all obeying the law, and living fat, while 
the laborer toils and sweats to support the whole, until 
he is driven, by his necessities, to commit some little 
offence, for which it becomes his turn to be " put 
through " ; a beginning is made, the wheel is rolling, 
and the case is rare that he does not become a hardened 
rogue, who " deserves to be hanged." Now this is 
not an unfair picture ; there is not one lisp of exag- 
geration in it. Honest, candid, reflecting men admit 
much by saying, " There is too much truth in it, but 
what will you do ? We must have something to restrain 
men." There are but few who are not ready to admit 
that a man, once sent to prison, is sure, or almost so, 
to go again. Men are made worse by confinement, 
though their keepers use their utmost* kindness or 
sternness, as they think the case demands ; so many 
together deprived of the beauty of nature, that enno- 
bles and refines, with nothing to do but to think, think, 
think. And what are the thoughts ? How shall I get out ? 
How can I revenge myself? and What will the people 
think of me after being imprisoned? They array the 
whole world against themselves, and themselves against 
the whole world, and seek revenge, justly thinking 
they have been unjustly deprived of liberty. The pub- 
lic sympathies are withdrawn, if they ever had any, 
and it is a noble man indeed that does not lose his own 
self-respect when pointed at as a released convict ; and, 
when self-respect is gone, all is gone, and the man is 
what he is made by the society around him, a vag- 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 323 

abond. You have been in jail a day or two, but not 
so long as I have, to mix with the prisoners, and learn 
the workings of the whole system. They often say, 
" I am in jail now, and can do as I please." They 
feel themselves outlaws, with no restraint but the iron 
and stone, and even become desperate, and often per- 
fectly regardless of their own life and health. There 
is one young man here, whom I believe as innocent of 
the crime ho is charged with as I am, — a good fellow 
as will be found in a hundred, — that at times seems 
perfectly regardless of himself; one whose talents would 
be an ornament to any good society. 

I wish the Christian fathers, mothers, brothers and 
sisters, would send their ministers, who do not believe 
in " opening the prison doors, and letting the captive 
go free," to the prisons (in disguise, of course, else 
they would not get the true character), and learn the 
workings of the system that is reacting on themselves 
and theirs. They may put away every feeling but 
their own selfishness ; and, if they are not dunces in- 
deed, ere they tarry forty days, they will be ashamed 
of their modes of reformation. Could each prisoner, 
twenty-four in number, as they have had here, have a 
separate cell, it would not better the matter. Soli- 
tude does not refine and ennoble such. Solitude, to 
those who drink deep from nature's fount of beauties, 
may satisfy the soul that is never unsatisfied ; but the 
hungry, starving, is only starved to death in isolation. 

To-day, Sunday (no better than any other day, 
however), eight prisoners have been added to our former 
number, for rioting, I understand. Probably rum is 
thought to be at the bottom of it. Since I have been 
here, some six or eight have been committed for rum- 
selling, and, I think, about ten for drunkenness. This, 
you understand, is the capital of the famous liquor 



824 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

law state, that boasts so much of the efficacy of the 
law for the suppression of the rum traffic. It does as 
well, I presume, as most other laws of force do that 
undertake to moralize the people. It is much like a 
man, with his mouth full of tobacco, enforcing a law 
for the purity of diet. One whom I was conversing 
with a few days since, a great stickler for the Maine 
law, was almost angered with me when I told him to- 
bacco was a pernicious weed, and unfit to be used by 
men. How quick they would take up arms if I 
should undertake to enforce a law on them, prohibit- 
ing the use of the poison ! I should just as soon think 
to have a law enacted that tea and coffee should not 
be drunk, because I don't drink them, as to impose a liq- 
uor law on others. I am no advocate of intemperance, 
either by precept or practice. I have not, to my 
knowledge, used one drop of liquor, for any purpose, for 
more than ten years ; and I regard it equally useless for 
bathing as drinking. I would as soon procure it to 
water a plant with as to use it on my own body ; but 
still I abjure the Maine law, because the people are 
like swine in this respect ; " they won't be driven ; *' 
and the cause of intemperance is not here ; it is fur- 
ther back. The enforcing of this law is increasing 
the first cause ; it is carrying out a system of enmity, 
hatred and punishment, which is the opposite to love ; 
and the want of love induces men to seek pleasure or 
pastime in dissipation. Give men good social rela- 
tions, love, kindness, and affection, and they will be 
happy in it, which is salvation and restoration, instead 
of damnation and destruction, which is the course now 
pursued. If the gospel and the ministry are the proper 
means of reform on Sunday, they are so on Monday, 
and all through the week. If they have not a truth 
that will save their people, they should learn the truth 
which will. 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 325 

It is a little rainy to-day, and I have been sitting 
at my window, alternately reading, writing, making 
toys for the children that visit me, and watching the 
church-goers as they pass and repass to and from meet- 
ing. One thing that particularly strikes my atten- 
tion is the " draggle-tails," as I call the ladies' long 
dresses, dragging in the mire, or being held up half- 
knee high, to save their being soiled ; sometimes occu- 
pying both hands to furl the enormous spread, and 
then leaving a skirt or two to be entangled about 
the heels, performing the office of fetters. The asp- 
like waist beneath, which is compressed into half its 
proper dimensions, the internal organs making every 
respiration for life but a feeble effort, and the bear- 
ing down of the heavy skirts on the naturally delicate 
and now enfeebled abdomen, and the delicate little 
foot crippled with tight shoes and corns, and the tal- 
low-like countenances and premature death, — the cer- 
tain result of all this, — and then the charging of all 
to Divine Providence ; — when I behold all this, I 
am led to exclaim, in the language of my old school 
book, " 0, the folly of sinners ! M I wish these ladies 
could see the mothers and daughters of Modern Times, 
or of the Oneida Commune, in their neat short dresses 
and pants, and hear them tell of the ease and comfort 
when compared with the long ones ; they would be 
disgusted with their fashionable death, and flee from it 
as they would from the bottomless pit. 

Truly, as ever, James. 

LETTER FROM M. B. R. 

Philadelphia, Jan. 9, 1855. 
J. A. Clay : For the first time, I have to-day seen 
a number of " The Eastern Light," and, in perusing it, 

.28 



326 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

my spirit has been drawn towards you with uncommon 
interest ; and, although a stranger to your face, except 
as seen in the Christlike heading of your paper, I feel 
all the tenderness of a sister's love and sympathy for 
you ; not because you are in a county jail, — not because 
you are a martyr to your sense of right, — but because 
the whole earth is one great prison, and the entire 
earth-life one long, wearied day of martyrdom, to such 
a nature as yours. But, thanks to the great God of 
progress, such martyrs are getting so numerous that, 
ere long, there will not be fagots enough to burn us. 
The marriage question is the question of the age. All 
reformers are now stayed by this, and it must be met; 
and, in my humble opinion, Spiritualism is the axe 
which is destined to strike at the -root of this giant 
tree. 

The war against the monster, Legal Marriage, must 
be a " holy war," made sacred by sacrifices of the 
sweetest, holiest ties of human affections. Children 
must be torn from parent hearts, and both be thrown, 
quivering, on the earth. But even this is preferable 
to the torturing hells which thousands now endure. 
Legal marriage, as a civil institution, is a deep, dark, 
foul, stagnant pool of semi-translucent corruption, 
glazed over with a reflecting surface of spurious ele- 
ments, which deceive the superficial and slothful ob- 
server, but fail to arrest the piercing gaze of him who 
wields the concentrating lens of truth. The ignorant 
believe marriage to be what this spurious seeming 
claims for it, — an institution of God ; while the wiser 
know its falsities in proportion to the labor which they 
have given to its examination, — the depth to which 
they have probed its rottenness, and stirred its filthy 
waters. It is one great cancerous growth upon the 
social structure ; and that it does not thus appear to 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 327 

all, is due entirely to its " Masonry." It is one great 
" Lodge," in which each member is sworn to secrecy 
by solemn oaths, the penalty for violating which is 
worse than a thousand deaths. But, thanks to that 
God-given love of liberty which lies latent in every 
human breast, there are beginning to be " seceders," 
who can brave the worst consequences of the penalties 
for the sake of that latent germ within, which has 
been acted upon by the fires of truth until it begins to 
exchange its latent energies for those more active prin- 
ciples which truth has evolved. These " come-outers " 
are strong. That they are come-outers is all the 
proof which is needed that they are strong; for the 
penalties of their violated oath are by no means to be 
avoided ; they do not think of escaping them ; and it 
is a brave, strong spirit alone who can enter upon the 
fiery ordeal, and a braver still who can endure unto 
the end, and live the life beyond. But such brave 
ones there are, and they are coming; yes, they are 
coming, — coming in the might of crushed and bleed- 
ing truth. They are few, of course ; but their num- 
bers are increasing ; and every new triumphant effort 
in this direction is fraught with happiness for millions. 
I wish that there might be one great worlds mass con- 
vention, where every man, woman, and child would 
come, and, in the light of both physical and spiritual 
science, give to the listening multitude their individual 
experience on all matters touching this hydra-headed 
monster of civilization. I would ask nothing more 
than to listen in silence, until, with one united voice 
of honest indignation, his death-knell rang from pole 
to pole, and his dying groans and his last death-throes 
proclaimed freedom, universal freedom, to love in ac- 
cordance with the laws of the great Eternal. 

I can see but one course which promises a radical 



328 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

cure for the whole : Let those who are ready for the 
sacrifice step boldly out from the marriage ranks, and 
face the whole enemy in the open field. The sight of 
these, few though they are, will strengthen and encour- 
age those who are faltering, and soon they will join 
us, — I say us, for I am in the field. Our numbers, 
thus augmented, will encourage still others, who will 
grow strong at the sight of numbers ; and thus on, and 
on, until the field is won. The struggle must, of 
course, be long and hard ; but the victory is sure. We 
have a brave, free band already in the field. It is 
spoken in heaven, and we will be free. Do with this 
as you choose. It is sincerely and respectfully given. 

Marenda B. Randall. 

REPLY TO THE ABOVE. 

Augusta Jail, 16th Jan., 1855. 

My dear Sister (for such I must regard you) : I 
have received your valued communication of the 9th 
inst., and have perused it with much pleasure. In the 
great desert it is as an oasis, — in the parched plain, 
as a rivulet from the living fountain. 

How true your saying that the earth-life of one of 
my nature is a long, wearied day of martyrdom ! 
None that have not realized can imagine how much I 
have suffered in my loneliness of spirit, in vain seek- 
ing my kind. But, as you say again, thanks to the 
great God of progress for the hope that it is almost 
over with me. I fancy I can see its end not far in 
the distance, and the bright day that is to dawn at 
least on us who are ready to sacrifice all else for 
truth, — and not much of a sacrifice, either, I trust, 
for such a one as yourself. 

What is error, falsehood, and wrong, that we should 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 329 

grasp it for a moment after wo know it to be such ? 
Better by far that we be hurled to the deepest hell the 
fiends of earth can manufacture for us than falsify the 
life within, to cater to their sense of right, for any 
favors they can bestow. The reward for well-doing is 
with us, is in us, and no hand shall wrest it from us, 
if we rely, with unwavering fidelity, on the God within. 
Said Jesus, " He " (and, if interrogated, he would have 
added she) " that will lose his life for my sake shall 
find it." There is no such thing as losing the life for 
the right ; and of what worth is a life amid all the 
falses of civilization, if it be not to overcome them ? 
If the earth is not to be redeemed from its discord, 
strife, and death, as well may the war that has begun 
in the East extend to the West, and depopulate the 
world. Such a tragedy is only to be arrested through 
such truths as you and I have in our bosoms. Love 
and freedom are the refiner's fire, and the fuller's soap, 
that are to purify and cleanse all nations of earth, and 
make our globe one vast kingdom of heaven. 

Let us, then, not suffer aught but love and freedom 
to pervade our bosoms. If we are strong enough to 
do the right, and endure the wrong, without a retalia- 
tory spirit, we are safe, and may be sure our victory is 
won. Truthfully yours, 

James A. Clay, 

LETTER TO VESTA. 

Augusta Jail, Nov. 20, 1854. 

Dear Vesta : I send you a little present, made 

especially for you. It is a trifling matter, but will 

serve as a memorial of your visit to me while in 

prison. Let it also be a memorial to you of good. 

28* 



330 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

Always live in that pure, innocent, childish love that 
you now do, and you will always be happy. 

The conditions of happiness are health of body and 
soul. What I mean by " soul " is mind, or spirit, — 
all the same. Always live so as not to transgress 
what you feel to be right, that you can at any time 
look back, and feel to say to yourself, " I have always 
lived in my highest ideal of the right ; " and then 
you may always look forward with hope, which will be 
an anchor to hold you secure in any present conflicting 
circumstances. Remember this, my dear girl, and 
such truths will open to you as but few possess. 

The health of the body is quite as much dependent 
on the mind, as the mind on the body. They act re- 
ciprocally on each other. The health of your body is 
also dependent on harmonic relations, — the congenial- 
ity of the spirits you are associated with. If we were 
obliged to be associated with those of unkind, unlov- 
ing, sour tempers, the tendency would be to sour us ; 
and this could not be without also having a tendency 
to disorganize the body, making it unhealthy ; there- 
fore the importance of keeping ourselves as free as 
the little birds to hop to another bush, should our pres- 
ent one become infected. 

Another condition of the health of the body, there- 
fore of the spirit, — which is of the utmost importance 
to you at your present age, — is simplicity of food 
and drink. Be temperate in all things. By all means 
shun tea and coffee, and, quite as much, every kind of 
flesh meats ; they are all pernicious, as food, for those 
who are not corrupt ; and then the thought of killing 
that we may live — I might more properly say, that 
we may eat and die — seems to me very disennobling 
indeed. Would my little Vesta be pleased to see the 
little innocent lambs, calves, or chickens, slain, that 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 331 

she may feed on them ? This has to be done if she 
eats of their flesh ; and if she would have the rough 
butcher, who is all covered with blood, both body and 
soul, go wash himself clean, and kill no more, she must 
set him the example by eating no more of what he 
kills. 

It is by our good example, my little girl, that we are 
to overcome so much evil that surrounds us everywhere 
in the world. You have not yet tasted the evil that 
almost floods the world, and I would have you live so 
truthfully that you never may. "When I was of about 
your age I was often told I was spending my happiest 
days. Such proves too true of the many, but only 
true as they become false. If we live in childlike 
innocence, our childlike happiness will increase, and 
not diminish, as we mature. 

Simplicity, innocence, love, and harmony, are yet to 
rule the world ; and this must continue with us, or 
begin even with the particles of which our bodies are 
made up or composed, which must be in love and har- 
mony with each other, and the whole in harmony with 
God's universal law of love and harmony ; and then 
the all-pervading spirit of God, who is the Father of 
our spirits, will be ever present with us, with his life, 
wisdom, love, and power. We shall then be one with 
God, who is all life, knowing no more death or sighing. 
It is a beautiful thought for me to dwell on, that all, 
far and near, are to know God, having his life in them, 
to be bound together by ties interwoven and entwined 
around every thought or action, never to be sundered ; 
and all be even more happy than you were the few 
hours you and your little mates spent with me in my 
prison room. 

Now, my dear, butcher's meats are no more in love 
and harmony with your bodily compositions than the 



832 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

butcher's business of killing is in love and harmony 
with your angelic nature or spiritual life, or any more 
than the business of killing is in love and harmony 
with the universal law of love and harmony that is to 
pervade the world when all creatures become so im- 
bued with the spirit of God, that the lion and the 
lamb shall lie down together in peace, and the little 
child shall play with either unharmed. 

And, further, you cannot any more depend upon a 
pretty and healthy body, made up of animal food, than 
you can depend upon a pleasant life with the butcher 
in his slaughter-house or pig-yard. 

Those of a coarser texture in body and spirit — 
such as would delight in scenes of bloodshed, who live 
but to kill and die - — may, with much more propriety, 
surfeit themselves on the carcases of dead animals ; 
but you, my dear, must, as much as possible, shun 
such. 

Some thoughts I give you are perhaps better adapted 
to those of a more mature age; but years are fast 
passing over your head, and each will add to your 
understanding, and of their store of good each will 
help to fill your heart, much more of which you will 
realize by heeding the advice I give you. Read this 
once in a while, and ponder on the thoughts I have 
dropped, and, as you ripen in years, all will appear 
consistent with you, and other truths, now hid from us 
both, will open, to bless us with their light. You have 
not visited me, as you anticipated when you left me. 
It is not that you do not wish to, but other reasons 
that prevent. I think I know. Is it not that your 
mother does not wish you to ? It will be all right by 
and by, and my little sis can come and see me, and 
love me as she wishes, and as I do her. Be good, 
and come when you are permitted. I have many 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 333 

visits from the little girls and boys, that do much to- 
wards making me happy. I think none that have 
called to get acquainted with me, except you and the 
little one with you, but have called often. Good-by. 

James A. Clay. 

LETTER TO EMMA. 

Augusta Jail, Dec, 1854. 
G-ood-morning, Emma ! How do you do this morn- 
ing ! Bright, good, and happy as ever are you ? I hope 
so, and have no reason to suppose otherwise. There 
is no good reason why we should not always be bright, 
good and happy. They are all embraced in goodness, 
which if we have, or are, gives us the other two bless- 
ings, brightness and happiness ; and not these three 
only are co-partners, but all the blessings that it is 
possible for human beings to enjoy — and human be- 
ings are capable of enjoying everything that is good, 
even God, and when we enjoy Him, we are incapable 
of suffering anything. We may endure the reproach 
of those who know not God or our own hearts, or en- 
dure imprisonment ; but what we endure for good, for 
God, we have Him to sustain us in, and even turn 
what others suppose to be suffering or misfortune to 
our and his good pleasure, and our happiness. We 
are in a sinful world, my dear little sis, but the sins of 
others shall not harm us if there be no sin in us ; and 
we will overcome the sin if we rely steadfastly on the 
good, which will bring the God to our own bosoms. It 
will be God after all that does the good work ; yet it will 
be done through us, for he will live in us, and we will be 
one with him, as was Jesus. You know how happy you 
are when you are good ; it is because God dwells with 
the good, and makes them so. Oftentimes we have to 



834 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

submit to the wrongs of others. It is one part of good- 
ness to submit. Said Jesus, " Resist not evil." But, 
after all, the submission is all resistance, because it is 
a reliance on God who saves us, while resistance or 
evil overcomes itself. Then, my dear, always rely on 
the right fearlessly. No matter how oppressive the 
wrong may seem to bear on you, it cannot harm you 
if your whole confidence be in the right, which is God. 
Better by far suffer death for the right, if such a 
thing were possible, than live for the wrong. This is 
a plain, away above what the world are content to live 
on; but no matter for that, we can obtain it, and live 
and be happy there ; and that is more than the world 
can say in their present attitude. I ought not to have 
said the world are content to live where they do, for 
they are not contented, are not happy. They put the 
happy time afar off, as they do their God, instead of 
having both within their own bosoms. 

Now I have almost filled my sheet, though when I 
began I did not think to write you half a dozen lines. 
I only wish to bid you good-morning, and mention that 
I had sent the little present I promised you, and that 
you were quite as much indebted to Ellen for it as to 
me. But I was so happy at the thought of our pleas- 
ant interviews, that I was induced to give you some 
of my pleasant reflections, hoping and confidently trust- 
ing that the time will come when each will love all as 
they do themselves ; changing this world from its se- 
pulchral appearance to that of the kingdom of heaven, 
in which there is no death. Now, my dear little girl, 
let me admonish you again to ever be truthful, that 
you may ever be as happy as on your visits to me in 
prison. 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 385 



LETTER TO JAMES. 

Augusta Jail, Sept. 2, 1854. 

Dear Boy : I have before me your letter of the 
30th of July, it having been received two days since. 
I am much pleased to hear from you, but I regret that 
you take such an interest in the prevailing strife with 
which the world is agitated. I hope you will read and 
ponder well on the articles I have been writing, which 
I will endeavor to place within your reach, and see if 
you cannot raise yourself above the coming storm, or 
the storm already come, which threatens to engulf all 
nations. 

I came here last Monday to fulfil the sentence 
passed by the law on me for last summer's doings. I 
am offered my freedom on the payment of two hundred 
dollars, which I am not possessed of, and do not know 
that I could conscientiously pay if I had the sum. I 
loathe the thought of being bought with gold like a 
slave. The same that I might pay could be offered 
for the captivity of others equally innocent and con- 
scientious with me. From the first I have acted from 
the highest and truest light within me, and feel that I 
ought not to fear but the best good to the whole, which 
is my aim, will come out of it at last, if I but continue 
to rely on the truth as I ever have done. I am only 
anxious now that I am not doing more than I am able 
to here for the spread of the gospel of truth. But, 
after all, I ought not to fear, and should not in the 
least if I were exactly in the right place ; that is, per- 
fectly resigned to my lot, let come what would. I 
am often pained that I cannot be understood ; that 
people are so blind and dark that they cannot appre- 
ciate a truth, because they find no corresponding one 



836 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 

in them. Men's lives must not be a lie, if they wish 
to know what is true. I feel strongly in hopes, ere I 
have been buried here six months, that a flash of light 
will pass the people's minds, that will enable them to 
see that the better way to treat offenders is to " forgive " ; 
not so much on my own account as for their own 
benefit, for I am assured they need this truth much 
more than I need or desire my liberty. It is a great 
truth the world have yet to learn, that the good is the 
only way to overcome evil and save ourselves. I am 
very anxious you should learn the practice of this 
great principle, never to retaliate in the least, not even 
by contention of words. A quiet submissiveness to 
those who are antagonistic to us will in the end prove 
far more convincing to the world than strife. Strife 
can only overcome strife by the loss of all engaged in 
it. Then, James, beware of how you meddle, if you 
would save yourself. Love and harmony is the only 
true life to live ; then shun what you cannot overcome 
by simple truths, promulgated in a peaceful, quiet 
spirit, lest you be overcome by gross errors. Though 
you have ever so good an argument to back you up, 
if it is thrown back to you in anger or contention, 
pocket it, and make the best of it. A truth to any 
one who cannot receive it without contention may as 
well remain with its author a while longer. 

About money-making, which I suppose with you, as 
with nearly all the world, is the all-engrossing sub- 
ject, let me say one word. The value of money is 
only imaginary ; it is a false, god which the world 
chase with unabated fury, and grasp with unrelenting 
zeal, to make doubly sure their own ruin. Mark the 
strife and death-struggles of the foolish seekers after 
the gaudy bauble, riches, which loses half its charms 
the moment it is grasped, and then, like a canker- 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 337 

worm, eats out the vitals, the very love or life of its 
possessor. For all the gold on the Pacific coast I 
would not endure one week's strife with its seekers. 
Suppose you had the hull of every vessel on the coast 
filled with the cankering trash — what then ? would you 
be happy ? Not a whit more so than now, or so much 
so. Your cares and anxieties would be enhanced in 
proportion to the increase of treasures of that charac- 
ter. Many, ay, countless numbers of foolish men 
hoard up gold, that they may stand sentinel over it all 
their lives, which they make short by fear, and are 
finally cut off, fulfilling the destiny of fools. There 
are now entombed here with me some dozen or more, 
all, or nearly all, victims to this foolish strife ; some 
with as noble hearts as need beat in the human breast, 
only wanting education. Now, James, adopt a quiet, 
peaceful mode of life ; think not to get rich with gold, 
for you will only get cursed in so doing. Live for 
each day as it comes and goes, adding some little item 
to your store of knowledge with every rising and de- 
clining sun, and believe that now is the judgment of 
this world, that we have to answer in our lives and 
happiness for each day's deed or thought, whether 
good or evil. Let your conduct be such that your 
thoughts may be pure and holy. Do not go to any 
one else for a standard of righteousness, but look to 
your own heart for commendation ; and, if you get it 
there, after taking a careful survey, it is well, or the 
best you can do. But what you have said or done to- 
day is no standard for you to-morrow; but onward, 
ever forward ; be looking for more light, which will be 
sure to be yours, if you are but faithful to that which 
you already have. 

Now, as I have a long time done, let me insist on 
the necessity of temperance ; not only in drinking, but 
29 



338 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED, 

in eating slso. Let your food be of the simple kinds, 
which, you know I approve of, and such as has been 
tried enough by you to insure your hearty approba- 
tion and uninterrupted good health. Do not neglect 
the daily bathing, as it is very essential. Write to 
mother, sis and myself, as often as you can. Give 
yourself no uneasiness about me; I am well provided 
with all that is necessary for my comfort. Those un- 
der whose charge I am, God included, grant me all the 
liberty it is best I should have. When the time 
comes I shall be free, as I am in fact now, My love 
to Isaac as well as yourself, my dear son. 

James A. Clay. 
To James A. Clay, Jr., San Francisco, Cal. 

LETTER TO EVA. 

Modern Times, L. L, N. Y. 1852. 

Dear Eva : It is a long time since I have heard direct 
from you, and I don't know but you have almost forgot- 
ten me; but I hope not, if I am a cast-off by those who 
love their idols better than the truth. When I saw you 
last, you know, it was in the street near your school- 
house, surrounded by a horde of little ones, and I had 
hardly time to say a word to you. At that time 
mother said she was going to take you with her, and I 
supposed she had done so until I heard by Olive the 
other day that you* were still at Henry's. Wherever 
you are, I hope you will follow such advice as seems 
to you to be good and true, however contradictory the 
practices of those with whom you are associated ; for 
be assured that they who do the wrong must sooner or 
later suffer for the wrong they do, however popular 
or unpopular that wrong may be. 

It is better by far that we have the reprobation of 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 339 

friends and the approbation of our own conscience, 
than to have the approbation, or even applause, of the 
most honored of them when our conscience tells us we 
are doing an act unworthy of the greatest light within 
us. 

I well know, daughter, it is keen to suffer the re- 
proach of those with whom we are associated, and as 
well know it is quite as keen to suffer the violation of 
nature's laws, as written in our own constitutions and 
conscience. We have but to learn and live the truth 
to bring us peace and happiness, though that truth 
may seem a falsehood to those who look on and live it 
not. . Need I tell you, that so far as the precept and 
practice of mankind are concerned, the world of 
man is a lie, a mammoth falsehood that is adorned 
with pictures shaded with every hue, to allure the un- 
suspecting into its venomous grasp ? I tell it to you, 
though you may not believe me, or, believing me, may 
not give heed to my teachings, and shun its fangs. 

There are but few who do not admit the fallen con- 
dition of our race ; and none, not one, who does not feel 
the sting of sin ; but most seem to be content to sink lower 
and lower in the pit, only looking forward for a re- 
demption after this life, through the interposition of 
Jesus, the coming of whose kingdom they mockingly 
pray for, and whose disciples they would turn from 
with scorn and derision. shame, daughter, that we 
should bow in reverence with our lips, looks and ac- 
tions, to this mockery of discipleship, while we spurn 
with our hearts the great truths of God, as taught by 
that worthy reformer ! Do not think, daughter, I would 
censure you for being obliged, as you are, to give assent 
to the inconsistencies of the established order of things 
with which you are surrounded ; for I would not do so, 
but rather help you to see them in their true light, 



840 CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED* 

and help you as soon as may be to escape their 
scourgings. 

The time is to eome, my dear one, when truth and 
goodness will as triumphantly reign in this world as 
falsehood and evil now do. All sin is to cease, — to be 
overcome by righteousness, or destroyed by its own sin- 
fulness. It cannot always exist because it is finite ; 
but the good, which is infinite, must reign time without 
end. Then, my daughter, do you wish a long inherit- 
ance in this world, be good. Don't say you would 
not " live always," with all the troubles you have had 
to endure, expecting, as long as you do live, to endure 
like troubles ; for this need not be. Obedience to the 
divine law gives us life, health, and happiness unal- 
loyed. Disobedience brings to us disease, misery, and 
death, a most welcome messenger to relieve us of our 
sufferings. Then, daughter, by all means be true to 
the life within you, which is love. Always live in 
love and harmony with those with whom it is your lot 
to be associated. Do not think to overcome any evil 
in them by any other power but good. If they are 
past your power to reach by good, then shun them> 
and rest assured that the evil in them will do its own 
work of destruction, and make its marks on you also* 
if you meddle. Therefore, I say, shun all that you 
cannot reach with good ; that is y with love and kind- 
ness. Do we do an evil act to another, we involve our- 
selves with the other in the evil, which is our ruin ; 
surely, unless we forsake it hereafter. Now is the 
time that we may have hope, if ever, to raise our- 
selves above this system of destruction, as it is carried 
on, of overcoming evil with evil. I say now, daugh- 
ter, is the time to render good for evil, that we may 
raise ourselves, rather than continue to fall lower and 
lower. There is no evil sent abroad that does not 



CORRESPONDENCE, CONTINUED. 341 

echo and reecho. So of good, its vibrations are with- 
out end ; then I say, stifle the one in your bosom, and 
send the other on its errand of mercy, to bless mankind 
in a world without end. Don't say you cannot 
put up with an insult, if insult comes. I have seen 
you, daughter, with all the womanly appearance of 
one double your age, battle the wrong with candor, 
confidence and strength, known only to those who love 
and live in the right. Then, I say, live in the right, 
above the wrong, and fear not, for such help shall 
come to you as you never dreamed of. 
Your affectionate father, 

James A. Clay. 

29* 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

r £HOUGHT, SPEECH, ACTION, BONDAGE, AND FREEDOM, 

Of what service are our mental faculties, if we may 
not speak and act? We boast of the freedom of the 
press in America, yet of what avail is it to us, if we be 
not allowed to live a truth we teach? A truth were 
better to us unknown, than that we ever struggle yet be 
unable to live it in our lives. It is in being, not in tell- 
ing, that the blessings come. Before our hearts knew 
freedom, our souls were quiet in bondage. But when 
freedom comes in our inmost lives we strive and die, else 
we throw the yokes from off our necks. A name, — 
there is nothing in it ; yet there is a real,else no name. 
Liberty— Freedom — Independence, — what are they ? 
The slave, the serf, and the American " freeman," all 
have their standard, to which they aspire and above 
which they do not desire to rise. Liberty ! says the 
slave. Liberty to do what? To be whose slave I 
wish. Freedom I says the zealot for America institu- 
tions. Freedom to do what? Freedom to vote away 
my liberty — freedom to choose the tyrant who shall 
rule over me; no more I ask; I cannot rule myself. 
But what is such freedom to me ? It is filthy rags ; 
yea, worse than filthy rags, if I must submit to such 
freedom. I ask a greater liberty — • a greater freedom. 
I ask to be ruled by such laws as are, ever have been, 
and ever will be, not by the caprices of legislators. 
He who made me, made laws to govern me. I ask 
that I may obey them, provided I infringe not on the 



THOUGHT, SPEECH, ACTION, ETC. 343 

rights of other beings. Deny me this, and you infringe 
on an ordinance of God. Do you ask, who shall be 
the judge ? Every one his own. The violated law of 
God is sufficient to inflict all penalties. " Vengeance 
is mine, I will repay." I do not ask freedom for 
those who wish to be slaves. I wish to be free, and 
ask it in all truthfulness and candor. Not that you 
grant it to me. I have a grant from higher authority. 
I only ask that you may not undertake to abridge it. 
Most very good, well-meaning people think freedom 
only another name for the outbreak of all the lower 
passions, with all others but themselves. If they 
think this be their own case, then let them if they will 
become voluntary slaves, and let God become the 
executioner of his own violated laws with others as 
well as themselves. Let them only put their brother 
man under such wholesome restraints as shall protect 
themselves. And let no one imagine there is a greater 
or more wholesome restraint on the evil passions of 
men than kindness, freedom, knowledge. If freedom 
is the bane of society, why is the passion so deep- 
planted in the human breast? Why, when we taste 
its sweets, do we say give me more ; throw off your 
yoke. I cannot wear it ; my spirit is too free ; give 
me death, rather than your chains. 

Were they not your loftiest minds that fought for 
your boasted freedom, when the British yoke was im- 
posed on them ? Has not every reform been accompanied 
with more freedom, and has not that freedom been 
accompanied with greater reform ? If not, why your 
boast of American institutions? Why so much more 
intelligence, prosperity and happiness, at the north than 
the south ? One end of the yoke that galls the slave 
has to be borne by him who enslaves. The master is 
the slave of slaves. 



344 MY FREEDOM. 



MY FREEDOM. 

I have, on more than one occasion, publicly declared 
my fleedom ; but it may not be amiss to repeat the 
declaration, and define my position. 

I % do not feel myself responsible to any government 
or law except the right ; be that law of Russia, Eng- 
land, or America, it is mine to love, honor, and obey. 
The wrong I hate, abhor, detest, and will only bow to 
it as I am coerced, or to prevent a greater outrage on 
humanity. I resist no law, blood for blood ; but all 
laws of governments rendering evil for evil, though it 
be under the pretence of final good, I repudiate as 
barbarous and foolish in the extreme, and will only 
participate in, even as an evidence, except, as I have 
said, to save from a greater violence or inhumanity. 
Should I be so unfortunate as to witness a murder, I 
would not be the assassin's accuser under any of the 
prevailing governments of earth, and would myself 
endure the prison's confinement rather than appear as 
evidence against the offender ; not that I would coun- 
tenance crime, but that I would discountenance the 
impolitic policy of eye for eye, evil for evil, which all 
governments claim as their prerogative. When states 
and nations will truthfully carry out, to all offenders, 
the policy that some have so wisely adopted towards 
their juveniles, I will join them heart and hand, and, 
if need be, devote my life to their interests and the 
pursuit of criminals, that they may be overcome with 
good. Until then, I shall be content — ay, proud — 
to be deemed an outlaw. 

Our fathers declared — and we laud the declaration 
— that the unalienable rights of man were life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. And what is life ? It 



MY FREEDOM. 345 

is not a soulless mass of disorganized matter, thrown 
promiscuously together, contrary to true universal laws 
of love and harmony, but an internal principle of love, 
which attracts or brings together a mass, each particle 
of which harmonizes with every other and the great 
centre, and all take their appropriate position around 
the great centre of attraction. In other words, love 
is life, and God is love, — a spiritual element, in 
which we live, and move, and have our being. In a 
few words, such is animal life, and such we must enjoy, 
else resolve to the original. And what is liberty ? 
Can it be to enjoy the companionship of a " chain 
gang," though in their irons they be permitted to rove 
creation over ? What is " national liberty " to the 
millions who groan under the driver's lash? or to the 
many millions who sink beneath Oppression's iron heel? 
or to the many or few who themselves are slaves to 
the wrong to perpetuate the slavery of the millions ? 
All earth is in bonds, and groans under misfortunes 
from which there can be no respite until each son and 
daughter of Adam have their individual freedom ; not 
merely a freedom from the physical restraint and the 
task-master's rule ; not a religious freedom merely to 
think in matters pertaining to a future sphere ; or a 
political freedom to choose who shall be emperor, presi- 
dent, governor, judge, or esquire ; or a social freedom 
to choose a single life-companionship, to be enjoyed in 
bonds. Freedom, to do its destined work of redemp- 
tion, must be absolute, — religious, political, social, 
individual, perpetual. Such freedom alone is worthy 
of the declaration of our fathers, and such alone can 
make us worthy of the coming reign of truth and 
righteousness. Absolute, individual, perpetual free- 
dom from any external or statute law, is my unaliena- 
ble right, more sacred to me than my material life, and 



346 MY FREEDOM. 

more unwillingly yielded to oppression's rule, — free- 
dom to think, speak, and act, independently of, and 
contrary to, the will of any other man, or combined 
number of men, provided I do not infringe on their 
right to the same. 

And happiness, — what is it, or where is it, that our 
fathers should think it was something only to be pur- 
sued, not realized? As life was to them a vagary, 
and liberty only a national liberty, so was happiness 
something they scarcely dreamed of realizing in this 
sphere. And it is certainly not to be found with the 
religious throng who flock our churches, or the politi- 
cal who fill our public stations, or the commercial who 
compose our densely-populated cities. Nor is it found 
in the isolated abodes of the more rural population. 
Everywhere is the earth barren of the blessing of hap- 
piness. Happiness is compatible only with a true life 
of absolute love and freedom, which our fathers re- 
garded as heterodox. When we have thrown off our 
necks this yoke of bondage, that forbids us to live 
true to our own internal loves, we can then pursue 
happiness with a degree of certainty of finding it. 
But do not let us, as did our fathers, think to protect 
or save our life by destroying life ; or our liberty by 
joining those who demand bondage ; or pursue happi- 
ness regardless of the universal good, lest we, like 
them, pursue it in vain. 

The highest law we can fulfil is the law of love, 
which is written in us, and the highest happiness we 
can enjoy is that which is afforded by being true to 
that law or love. If our life is so pure that we can 
act it " right out," without a sense of condemnation 
within ourselves, or without infringing on the life, lib- 
erty, and happiness, of other beings, but, instead, im- 
parting to all those blessings which we desire ourselves, 



CHARACTER AND REPUTATION. 347 

it may truly be said it is one with God, and no hand 
can wrest it from us. 

I am well aware how interwoven are our acts and 
our destinies, and that all are involved, in a greater 
or less degree, by the perversion of freedom which I 
claim, yet claim it as the surest safeguard to human 
virtue and happiness. The good are more secure in 
their goodness by granting it, and the evil will be ele- 
vated by it, or will rid the world of themselves if too 
low to be influenced by the good. 

I do not, as I have before said, claim the right to 
do wrong even to myself, but claim the right to my 
own consciousness of what is right, and a freedom 
from the judgments of others; and though the freedom 
I claim be ever so sacredly mine, I do not, as did our 
fathers, demand it at the cannon's mouth, or at the 
point of the bayonet. I ask not the right with the 
wrong, but with the right. I teach, I plead, I beg, I 
pray for it, and must, sooner or later, have it cheer- 
fully granted me. 



CHARACTER AND REPUTATION. 

Said Henry Ward Beecher, very truthfully, " A 
man's character is the reality of himself; his reputa- 
tion, the opinion others have formed about him. 
Character resides in him ; reputation, in other people. 
That is the substance ; this, the shadow. They are 
sometimes alike ; sometimes greater or less. If a 
man be able to achieve things beyond his time, his 
reputation will be different from his character. He 
who seeks reputation must not be beyond the times he 
lives in. It is important to men beginning in life to 
know which they want, — - character, or reputation." 



348 WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY? 

So much for Mr. Beecher's saying ; and he might have 
added, a reputation founded on character would be 
lasting, and character would eventually found a lasting 
reputation ; therefore character is the rock for those 
to stand and travel on who want permanency. Repu- 
tation is so fluctuating that, within the short space of 
a quarter of a century, one, himself occupying the 
same station, will pass from the honorable to the dis- 
graceful, or vice versa. There being no permanent 
standard with society, one can do no better than live 
truthfully to his or her sense of right, perfectly regard- 
less of the reputation others may award, yet always 
willing to examine opinions, unless they be made up 
of an old, exploded theory. We have nothing to fear 
except from falsehood, and have more to fear from that 
in ourselves than anywhere else. Numbers should be 
no authority for the reception of a principle. Truths 
are born into the world by individual minds, rejected, 
despised, and persecuted by the many. Numbers try 
to rule in various ways, but the right must prevail. 
Then be steadfast and unflinching in your own convic- 
tions against numbers, yet ready to yield thankfully to 
the right. 



WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY ? 

How often, when we are about to give birth to a 
thought by action, comes the second thought, " What 
will the people say ? " and checks us in our course, or 
turns us aside from the path that we would otherwise 
pursue ! and yet how absurd that one, with a tolera- 
ble degree of independence, should, for a moment, har- 
bor such a thought, or, at least, cherish such a feel- 
ing, that " what the people will say," or think, should 



WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY? 349 

restrain an action, or be an incentive to an action, 
that should otherwise be restrained ! What the peo- 
ple will do, in the way of violence to our persons or 
property, if we have no faith in an omnipotent arm to 
protect us, may be a subject more worthy of our con- 
sideration. • Much bread is to be cast upon the waters, 
to be returned unto us after many days. Much seed 
is to fall by the wayside, for the fowls to devour ; 
much on stony places, that will dry for want of earth ; 
much among thorns, that will be choked ; yet much, if 
we sow, will fall on congenial soil, that will bring an 
abundant harvest. Yet, after all this loss, that seems 
inevitable with the gain, there is a greater one that we 
need not sustain. We may not cast our pearls before 
swine, to be trampled under foot, and ourselves rent. 
What the people, blinded by their sins, may inflict on 
us, we may fear ; but what the people say, never, if 
we have faith in truth. If we all await the commen- 
dation of the public mind, what travel from the beaten 
track of the past dark ages of sin, ignorance and mis- 
ery ? Where science ? Where light ? Where truth ? 
If thus we are to be bound in the past, then let us 
close our eyes until the blind see; stop our ears until 
the deaf hear ; stand still until the lame and halt walk 
erect with us ; and let the tide of intemperance, the 
ravages of war, and all the curses of all the slaveries 
flow back upon us with their devastating floods, to 
engulph us beneath their merciless waves. Not thirty 
years since, the people said, Let us drink even to in- 
toxication ; let us swallow the pleasant beverage, 
though we revel with fools, or wallow in the gutter 
with the swine, or spill our brothers' blood like fiends. 
The time was, when " the people," the good Christian 
people, quaffed the intoxicating cup in commemora- 
tion of Jesus Christ. 
30 



350 WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY? 

What have the people said of all reforms and reform- 
ers, whether of morals, science, government, or relig- 
ion ? Have we not always found them ready to con- 
demn every innovation, or time-honored custom, and 
even to silence investigation, when possible, with scorn, 
threats, and physical force ? If we dare not speak, for 
fear of what the people will say, how long may we not 
wait ? When will all the people be ready to receive 
even the simplest truths of nature ? Who ever knew 
the people to give utterance to a great thought until 
the one or few, with the risk of sacrificing their repu- 
tation, their liberty, or their lives, have taught, have 
plead for the truth, for days, months, years or ages ? 
The few, as leaven in the lump, help it to rise con- 
trary to the inactive principle of the mass, and the 
mass come forward to glut themselves in honor of the 
elevation they have attained, and drink toasts to their 
own drunkenness and dishonor, in honor of him or 
them through whom they enjoy their elevated position, 
and then stand ready, with their gorged stomachs and 
swollen eyes, to poh at another thought that a more 
temperate or sane man has given birth to. Thus it 
has been, and thus it probably will be. 

The people now say, here in free America, near a 
century after declaring that all men were made free 
and equal — by their infamous fugitive slave law — 
that the black man shall not he free, and, by the laws 
of the people we may all be, in fact are all, man- 
catchers — freedom, arresters — to hurry back into 
slavery the man who asserts by flight his right to him- 
self. Gro to the halls of Congress, and learn what the 
people are about to say by their Nebraska bill. Go 
into yonder street, and ask not, but learn by their 
movements, " what the people say." They have just 
come forth (or at least not one rolling of the earth on 



WHAT WILL THE PEOPLE SAY? 351 

its orbit since) from the sound of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, where they bowed the knee in reverence to the 
doctrines of that reformer, and now watch their hur- 
ried chase after gold — now after distinction, now after 
revenge. Now see humanity trampled into the dust. 
Now see their own persons denied with pernicious 
food, stimulants and narcotics, though the sound has 
hardly passed from their ears, " Keep the body a fit 
temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in." 

What the people say may or may not be right. It 
should suffice us that what we do is right, regardless 
of what the people say. It is pernicious indeed to 
wait until the public mind is all ready to embrace an 
idea before we dare advance it. Enough that they 
are not swine to rend us. The saying may be true 
that the public mind is not ready to receive such 
thoughts as we have to give, but it may not be true 
that we should withhold such thoughts. Very trite 
sayings, " Whoso lighteth a candle, and putteth it un- 
der a bushel ; " and " Let your light so shine that oth- 
ers may see your good works." 

What will the people say, when they open their 
eyes, so that they can see the beauties of Christianity ; 
the beauty of obedience to the laws of God rather 
than the laws and customs of men; when, instead 
of worshipping in yonder temple, they worship in the 
temple of the living God in their own hearts ; when 
yonder war-ships shall decay at their moorings, and 
yonder prison be without a prisoner, and yonder court- 
house without a criminal, yonder lawyer without a 
client, yonder physician without a patient, yonder 
priest without a dupe, yonder almshouse without a vic- 
tim, and each human being an independent, healthy, 
happy sovereign, under God, the great Ruler ; — I 
say, what then will people say ? They will bless those 



352 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

who dared to do, and fear not what " the people" 
said. 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

Of what avail is all this precept without a corre- 
sponding practice ? None at all ; better not say, than 
say and do not. Better live in ignorance of a better 
state ; die in ignorance, than acquire a knowledge of 
the truth and falsify it. 

This book was designed for a practical purpose ; to 
teach those whom it could teach, and to call together 
those who are ready to sacrifice (if sacrifice it can be 
called) their present false conditions, relations and as- 
sociations, and enter into new conditions, relations and 
associations, that shall give, in place of war and strife, 
peace and quiet ; in place of want, plenty ; in place of 
bondage, freedom ; in place of envy and antagonism, 
love and union ; in place of discord, harmony ; in place 
of sickness, health ; and of death, life. In a word, it 
is to form a new world, a new kingdom, even the king- 
dom of heaven, the kingdom of Grod, of love ; a 
kingdom whose existence shall not depend on an ex- 
ternal evil force, destroying human life to save itself, 
but rather upon an internal power of goodness, that 
can give life — that can quietly yield the external or 
material life for the internal or spiritual life, which is 
with God an inheritance as lasting as eternity. 

Such a kingdom wants those who have outgrown 
the present false organization, and are seeking one 
without faults ; such as are ready, as said Jesus, to 
"forsake father, mother, brother, sister or wife," for 
such alone are worthy of the gospel of truth, and such 
alone can withstand the ordeal, and render to humani- 
ty the inestimable service she so much stands in need 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 353 

of. We are not to forsake any true thing or prin- 
ciple, but the false only. If a principle be true, it is 
worth living, leaving the consequences out of the ques- 
tion. If it be false, the sooner we abandon it the 
better, for nothing but evil consequences can follow. 
We can ask no bonds of people not to forsake us and turn 
back, still every one should count well the cost, and know 
for themselves, "if it will pay." It is but a trifle for 
those who are rich in love to forsake all the present 
world and its falses ; but for those who are poor in the 
pure spirit, and are wedded to the world as it is, it is 
a sacrifice they are illy able to bear. By and by, 
when they shall see more plainly the weakness of the 
present order, and the strength of the coming king- 
dom, they will be better prepared to join us. We 
must leave the present world with all they can truth- 
fully claim as theirs; but ourselves, our individual 
selves, if we are free men and free women, others have 
no right in. If we are held by other ties than those 
of love, we are not free, but in the bonds of slavery ; 
to escape which, it were better that we make an effort, 
even if we die in the struggle. Death has no terrors 
to the loving free one compared with chains on the 
soul. Then I say, to those who are free in spirit, 
break the deathlike bonds which hold you, and come 
out from such, and unite your efforts and your des- 
tinies with those who, if need be, will give their life 
for the spread of truth. 

The stake and fagots, rack and prison, were once 
offered as the strong arguments against truth ; but 
those days are well-nigh spent, though the ignorant, 
bigoted conservative is not without his means of per- 
secution, which may come in the form of slander, which 
seems almost the last dying groan of error ; but such 
or the prison will pass us unharmed if we offer no re- 
30* 



354 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

sistance or retaliation. The professed Christian world 
has hardly churches sufficient to hold the dissenters 
from the present practice of the church associations. 
Nor have governments prisons enough to contain a tithe 
of the " come-outers " in spirit, and, would they all 
but speak their inmost sentiments, the cry for social 
freedom would ring from pole to pole as has the cry 
for religious and political. Were all the real heretics 
at heart, against the prevailing religions of the world, 
now on the altars, ready for the sacrifice, there would 
not be enough left to apply the torch ; therefore, 
the lovers of truth need only to speak, and their voices 
would ring together the welcome of a new social order, 
while the old would breath out her last expiring 
breath without a struggle. 

Temperance is indispensable to the success of a new 
social order. First, that there may be health and 
harmony among the members ; and, secondly, that they 
may rise above pecuniary embarrassment. Those 
holding the moneyed wealth and power will be slow 
to yield it, and place themselves where all such power 
will be lost to them, and their own truthfulness and 
benevolence rather than gold, is to be the standard of 
worth. Truly, it will be hard for such to enter the 
kingdom of heaven ; therefore, it must be made up of 
those who at present must of necessity, as well as 
of choice, dispense with the riotous living of much of 
the world. There must be individual harmony within 
ourselves, which cannot be without temperance, ere 
we enjoy harmony with universal nature. 

Temperance here spoken of means more than to 
abstain from alcoholic drinks. The poisoning of the 
system with tea, coffee and tobacco, which is so gen- 
eral, and the surfeiting on the carcases of dead animals, 
which is followed by a further poisoning in drugging 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 355 

to obtain relief from previous poisoning, is but a step 
behind in the broad road to drunkenness, which the 
public are so ready to suppress by any means, fair or 
foul. The harmonies of universal nature forbid the 
destruction of animal life, and the judgment is phys- 
ically, morally and spiritually, on those who consume 
the flesh, as well as on those who imbrue their hands 
in the blood. 

To me baptism seems quite as indispensable as tem- 
perance. Not the formal ceremony once performed, 
answering a lifetime, but a thorough ablution of the 
body daily. Cleanliness, purity, health and harmony, 
are all coexistent virtues, and I cannot see how the 
latter can prevail without the former. I think I never 
knew one entertaining correct principles who did not 
cherish daily ablution as a sacred ordinance. John 
the baptist well understood the necessity of water bap- 
tism, to prepare the mind for the reception of truths 
taught by Jesus. 

Dress has more importance attached to it than 
many imagine at first thought. The torturing of the 
body to ape the fashions of society is but little better 
than suicide ; to commit which outright, in a moment, 
to save one from a miserable life and a lingering death, 
would give the public mind a dreadful shock ; while 
to follow nature in all things, not heeding the follies 
of society, would be quite as shocking an affair. There 
must be moral and physical purity, which will give us 
a self-reliance for happiness, rather than leave us 
afloat to follow every current of a vitiated public 
sentiment. 

Free criticism is essential to the unity and harmony 
of any company. And this can be without the mis- 
chievous, unfriendly, fault-finding spirit which usually 
accompanies it. It is our loss as well as others that 



356 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

we entertain an error in precept or practice, and our 
benefit that we are watched and admonished in a 
friendly manner. The world now criticize, condemn, 
and pass judgment and punishment on the delinquent ; 
but when they learn the true doctrine of circum- 
stances, — that all have done the best they could, and 
the worst also, and that really there should be no 
praise or blame attached to any one, — their criticism 
will be without censure or medals. It will be to 
teach, leaving the wrong-doer to the censure of his 
own conscience, and the well-doer with the satisfac- 
tion of having done right. 

This doctrine of circumstances is the foundation, 
the rock on which to build charity, and without which 
we cannot be charitable. Without charity, our criti- 
cism will be with the spirit of condemnation and judg- 
ment or punishment. Forgiveness follows charity, and 
as we " forgive, so are we forgiven." Forgiveness 
to others is followed by the same to ourselves ; not so 
far in the rear as to only overtake us in a future 
sphere, but with the utterance of the breath, or with 
the escape of the thought, " I forgive," we are re- 
paid with an internal satisfaction, "lam forgiven " ? 
It is a heaven not to be sought after, but already won. 

Who that does not aspire to a higher destiny than 
the world now presents to us ? Not they who repeat 
the prayer of Jesus, "Thy will be done in earth as in 
heaven," though they may have no faith in the realiza- 
tion of so blessed a desire. Is there one, however 
low in the scale of humanity, who cannot say, in his or 
her heart, God speed the day when love and wisdom 
shall rule the world, rather than the misrule of the 
sword and its agencies shall continue ? A kingdom 
of heaven is destined for the race, and those who have 
faith in it have only to live for it, while they leave 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 357 

the faithless ones free to do their own work of de- 
stroying. 

Association on the true free-love basis, is to do the 
work of human redemption, as association on the false 
basis has done the work of human destruction. We 
are to realize its benefits pecuniarily in its enhanced 
power to produce, and in the vast economy in expend- 
iture or consumption. Socially, in the enhanced means 
of education, amusements and recreations, and diffus- 
ing the life and spirit of brotherhood through the race ; 
and morally, in removing the many evils which now 
exist for money-getting, which sacrifice human life to 
that end. From the toy manufactory to the erecting 
of monuments, from the confectionary to the distil, 
from teaching the child his a, b, c, to his finished 
and polished education ; in every department of life, 
from infancy to old age, we are to derive inestimable 
benefits from association on a true basis. 

The uniting the labor of the sexes, in all occupa- 
tions which are suited to both, will make much which 
is now mere drudgery a pleasant occupation. The 
heavy indoor labor, which is now performed by the 
female alone, would be shared by the male, while the 
light outdoor would be shared by the female ; reliev- 
ing her of much confinement, and invigorating her by 
partaking of the rugged exercise of the sterner sex. 
It is but little better than murder or suicide to con- 
fine our mothers, sisters and daughters, as is done, 
within doors so large a proportion of their time. 
Throw off woman's swaddling clothes, and let them, 
without the conventional impropriety of civilization, 
join the outdoor employments, and it will restore the 
rosy cheek, sparkling eye, joyous countenance, erect gait 
and elastic step, which are almost wanting, especially 
in American women, and it will make the sex man's 



858 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

equal, and suitable for the mothers of a generation of 
free men and free women, rather than mere dolls and 
slaves. The isolated household of the present society 
subjects every housekeeper, especially mothers, to a 
drudgery but a grade above African slavery ; and 
man, as well as woman, is a slave to a thousand evils 
which may be removed if he will. Our flesh-eating 
makes us all mere chambermaids for sheep, pigs, cows 
and oxen, and, indirectly, for horses also. We must 
be redeemed from these slaveries, and honest labor be 
made attractive, as it may be, even as much so as the 
hall of amusement now is. It can be done so, produc- 
ing the necessaries of life in the greatest profusion. 
And, having redeemed man from his zmenlightened 
selfishness, all would enjoy as from the bounteous hand 
of nature. Then would the world understand why 
Jesus said, " Take no thought for the morrow," but 
" Seek first the kingdom of heaven." 

Does this redemption seem impossible or improb- 
able, or too far away, for this generation to anticipate ? 
It would seem far more impossible, to me, to stay its 
progress. I would as soon think to dam the Niagara 
and turn its torrent of waters southward, as to stay the 
march of progress, which is to redeem the world from 
its want, strife and death, to plenty, quiet and life ; 
making a " real of the highest form of my ideal." 

" You can't " is the phrase of the sluggard, or those 
who have no faith in the right. " We can " much 
more becomes the industrious Christian. That the 
world, in its general course of rendering evil for evil, 
may never be redeemed, I do not myself doubt ; but 
that a wise course will do so I have the greatest faith. 

Said a zealous Methodist revivalist, " If God should 
tell me to tip the world over, I should tell him to 
stand by and give me a chance, and I would try ; " 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 359 

but I would say, " Give me a lift, and we '11 make it 
go," — and it would go, and it will go. The world is 
really the other side up, and God, who is love and wis- 
dom, through men's agency, is to do the work of right- 
ing it ; and he or she who engages in it has not a hope- 
less or helpless task. 

We may deny the oneness of the race, yet imper- 
ceptibly, in practice, acknowledge its truthfulness. 
Each nation, and the world of nations, is a vast associ- 
ation, but on a false basis, or without any basis — a 
shell without any nucleus — the form of a nut, without 
the meat, — all an external thing, without the internal 
principle of life, which is the every thing. The vast 
works of governments — all for destroying — are the 
results of union of effort, or association. What must 
be the benign result, when all the vast effort of man 
shall be wisely directed to the removal of the evils 
which they in their present organization are calculated 
to perpetuate ! 

I propose to make an effort to found an association 
on a true basis, and to that end offer my services as a 
medium of communication between those who are de- 
sirous of joining me. I wish to correspond with them, 
and receive the names of those who are ready for the 
move, accompanied with such other information as will 
be desirable to its earliest realization. Accompanying 
the names it will be well to give ages, occupation, and 
all circumstances which the writer would desire to 
know of those with whom he or she was about to join 
their destinies. 

Each may thus know, before making a move, what 
of the external we have, which is thought so essential to 
success. But still there is much more depending upon 
the true principles innate in each of us, which if we 
have we are sure of success and without which, though 



360 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

we may have the wealth of the Indies, it will avail us 
nothing, but, rather, insure us a failure. 

The first and most important step, then, will be to 
locate on a soil that will, with industry and frugality, 
give us a support without a dependence on the moneyed 
interests of the world for labor. If the laboring man 
can now sustain himself in his isolation and robbery, 
he can live " like a prince," as the saying is, when he 
can have the advantage of association, and the product 
of his labor which by divine right belongs to him. 

Next, after means of self sustenance and improve- 
ment, we want a press — "a free press " — that shall 
scatter the seeds of truth as the slave press does the 
seeds of error. If we would, we could not, and if we 
could we should not, seclude ourselves from the world, 
and the best means of communication is the press, each 
edition from which may be worth more for freedom than 
a legion of armed soldiers. It is the peaceful, though 
the effective, means of revolution, which will make the 
doubters quail, though eventually but to bless the 
means that set them free. 

Though agriculture be the main, all useful trades 
can flourish, but none other ; not as now those whose 
aim is money-making, though it be at the sacrifice of 
human life and happiness. The good of the whole, or 
the harmony of universal nature, must be at the bot- 
tom of every plan, of every plot. x\nd the harmony 
of universal nature does not demand the destruction of 
one class by another, under any pretence whatever, but 
demands the inviolation of the law of freedom, that 
the corrupt may destroy themselves if need be ; and 
the sacredness with which this law is held by the good 
will be their security against the evil. 

The forming of one little association is by no means 
the height of my anticipations, though I would be 



CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 361 

happy and proud to be found in one of very humble 
achievements, though there were no other in the 
world. What I wish and anticipate for myself, I do 
the same for all others who have like wishes. There 
are but few towns, perhaps not one in North America, 
but can furnish members for a good company, who 
would receive incalculable benefits from association ; 
and let them be formed, and finally consolidated into 
one, as they must be if they are founded in truth. 

If there are those who can associate on other base 
than that which I advocate, let them do so, that them- 
selves and the world may have the benefit of harmony 
in some respect, or of avoiding whatever antagonism 
can be avoided. So much of the interests of the race 
as is united, so much is gain. But let none think to 
make themselves strong by making others weak, to 
make themselves rich by making others poor. Asso- 
ciate for self-protection, and not for others' destruc- 
tion. Whatever may be the opinion of others, I can 
see no other base for reformation, can see no other 
reform that will not eventually need reforming. The 
principle of self-support must be in every association, 
else they must enslave another class, which creates the 
discord which destroys. Such do all governments. 
They claim the right to govern the people with their 
iron rod, and not only make the people pay for such 
usurped authority, but support a horde of drones who 
know not the blessing of supporting themselves as 
free, independent beings. Any government, to be a 
real benefactor, must at least be seif-supporting. 

With the same labor and habits of civilization as at 
present, the world might grow rich in association. 
But where could the slaves come from to produce for 
those who only consume, if the whole were really rich? 
With the present base I cannot see but there must be 
31 



362 CONCLUSION, TO REFORMERS. 

riches for masters and poverty for slaves, and slavery 
for all, and can see no radical cure but love and free- 
dom ; but, as I have said, if others can, I hope they 
will exhibit it to a dying world. With a true base, 
there may be true riches for all, and slavery for none. 
My address is Gardiner, Maine. And now let me 
hear from such of either sex as are ready and willing 
to unite their interests and destinies with mine, and as 
soon as practicable we will meet in conference, and 
settle upon further movements. All communications, 
desired to be so, shall be strictly confidential ; yet I 
hope to find a little company, each of whom is strong 
enough individually to speak and live a truth in the 
face of the world; and a score of such associated 
would be invincible. 



